Player ratings: England struggle in Paris

Here's our England player ratings after their 22-16 defeat to France at the Stade de France in Paris.

15 Anthony Watson – Back in his preferred position, he failed to stamp his mark on the game. 5/10

14 Jonny May – Took his try well and tried hard to make incursions. 5/10

13 Ben Te’o – Tried hard to straighten and keep the French midfield honest. 5/10

12 Owen Farrell – Deadly accurate with the boot and very solid, but when a game was so static and stodgy, where was his leadership for the first 60 minutes? Should have been moved to 10 a lot earlier. 6/10

11 Elliot Daly – His rugby intellect kept England in the game, he does so many things well and his long range boot is invaluable. Good to see the Briefcase back. 7/10

10 George Ford – Targeted by the French midfield and struggled to impose himself. Poor. 4/10

9 Danny Care – His main course is nowhere near as appetising as his dessert and his passing was wayward. 5/10

8 Nathan Hughes – Not on long enough to make an impact. 5/10

7 Chris Robshaw – England’s stand-out. He jackled, carried, supported and turnover all day and frankly, kept his team in the match. But surely they’re the core skills of a 6, not a 7? 8/10

6 Courtney Lawes – Physical power and brawn aplenty but simply not an international flanker. 5/10

5 Maro Itoje – A few glimpses of a return to the heady heights of 2017 but ultimately not enough of them. 6/10

4 Joe Launchbury – Launchbury does so many things well in a side that needs people to be outstanding. 5/10

3 Dan Cole – Put in a decent tackle count but England needs more from their props. 5/10

2 Jamie George – After two seasons of pressure to start, he really didn’t quite live up to the expectation. 5/10

1 Mako Vunipola – His scrum penalties were won more by luck than judgement and his was continually isolated when carrying. 4/10

Replacements:

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie – He’ll rue the fluffed line-out throw but his latter stage contributions were impressive. 6/10

17 Joe Marler – Came on and was greeted by the first legal scrum of the game in the 70th minute. 5/10

18 Kyle Sinckler – Impact personified. Put simply, he needs to start. 7/10

19 James Haskell – With Sinckler, they almost pulled off a very undeserved win. Good to see the big fella back. 7/10

20 Sam Simmonds – Forced on when Hughes broke down, Simmonds struggled to use his pace in the slow vehicular traffic. 5/10

21 Richard Wigglesworth – Kept England going forward. 5/10

22 Jonathan Joseph – Wiggled, stepped, ran, passed but couldn’t make the break. 5/10

23 Mike Brown – Is it too much to expect a full-back to be able to pass after 70 caps? 4/10

by James While