English Glee-son comes with a Pryce.

Forgive me for the tabloid style headline, but it shows who shone in a rejuvenated England’s first game in preparation for the World Cup. Against a French side that was mostly made up of Catalan Super League players, England brushed them aside in a eight points to fifty six win that saw Martin Gleeson and Leon Pryce put themselves in the pilot and co-pilot’s seats ahead of the flight to Australia at the end of the year.

Martin Gleeson finally showed his true form surrounded by higher quality players and a coach who is highly respected and with a proven track record. His hat-trick was the icing on the cake, which was set up in sponge by Saints stand off Leon Pryce. His performance, as critical as it was, showed his characteristics as a player who can lead as well as dominate an attacking side with the added quality of a halfback who can tackle. Peter Fox (who lost me a fiver not being first try-scorer) had a quite start for the majority of his debut, but capped it off with a fantastic team try in the corner despite the disappointment of a correctly disallowed try. However, I don’t feel the obstruction was sufficient to deny Fox of his try in the first half. But the grounding was a little suspect for my liking.

The game started off as expected, with England dominating the French line. But what wasn’t expected was a French lead as James Wynne exposed a huge hole in the English defence between Jamie Peacock and Keith Senior after a series of penalties, which left Paul Wellens in shock as he stumbled to try and prevent the try. However, England came back and after Gleeson and Pryce put England ahead, the French hit back. But after a penalty fifteen yards out from the English line and Peacock’s side on the back foot, Bosc chose to kick for goal at the annoyance of Jamal Fakir. Fa’asavalu took England into half time eight points ahead and the second forty saw the floodgates open and the pride of northern England (one for the traditionalists) ran in an extra forty points without reply.

It was a performance that suggested more could be done before October. That’s not to say we should be at our best now, but that we need to identify areas of improvement before the Welsh game so we can work on them before facing Papa New Guinea in Townsville. England were guilty in discipline tonight, which is unacceptable against the likes of New Zealand and Australia who will punish you for it. We also need to shake off any rust, as seen tonight with the French try and lack off communication between the centre and prop forward.

But otherwise it was a solid, well rounded attacking performance with areas of defence capable of being solid. Such evidence can be seen in that England had to concede five goal line drop outs throughout the game. But it’s not exactly doom and gloom for the French either. While the Catalan players are no doubt capable of keeping up with most of the English boys, it was the French domestic players that let the side down tonight. Their lack of stamina due to playing the French domestic season in winter, meant they were specific weak links in the line up, and were therefore exposed by a professional English outfit. Come October, these players will have undergone a pre-season training programme, with the possibility of a few domestic games under their belts, meaning their fitness will be an awful lot higher and at a standard capable of beating both Scotland and Fiji in Group B, and making it to the semi finals of the tournament.

For now however, the focus is Super League and the eventuality of the Grand Final, before any player can start to think of Australia and the World Cup. A World Cup that has the potential to see the English come away with the spoils on 22^nd November 2008.