France XV 35-19 England: The visitors were well beaten in the Vanes warm-up

England’s first attack produced a great try for Marley as Seb Atkinson ran hard, picked off a pass from Harry Randall and accurate work from Harry Randall and Calorie moved wide to hold off the Harlequins man covering Theo Atisogbe and into the corner.

That nifty first-period score came within 50 seconds.

France dominated most of the rest of the first half.

England hooker Theo Dann had already denied Esteban Capilla, ripping the ball over the tryline, before Nicolas Deporte, playing for the first time since dislocating his shoulder in the Six Nations defeat to Scotland in March, barged in on eight minutes.

The lively Grégoire Arfeuil followed shortly after, heading Yoram Moefana’s net inside ball to put France 14-5 up.

In their first match of the summer, England’s fightback efforts were undermined by the lack of mainstays Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Ollie Chesham, Ben Spencer and Joe Hayes, understandable handling errors from the make-shift side.

Nevertheless there was promising combination in the wide channels between Max Ozomoh and Murley and full-back Marcus Smith dovetailed nicely with fly-half George Ford, occasionally stepping into the first receiver.

And on the stroke of half-time, Smith was given another first-phase strike move from his wing with Caluri to put him in a hole. Smith left the cover defense behind and drove under the post to lead his team down the tunnel with just two points at 14-12.

But France’s determination not to hand the ball over and the courage to run it from deep after the break.

Scrum-half Nolan Le Garrec, playing at his boyhood club, scampered over for a hugely popular score before Antoine Hustoy headed over at the end of another sweeping move that England could never pin down.

Caluri’s substitute hooker Jamie Blamire had an attempt cleared from a knock-on, but England could not get a real toehold as they labored at set-pieces.

A terrible defensive gap allowed Baptiste Jauneau to tap through the heart of the visiting defense and put fellow substitute Fabian Brau-Boiri under the post for a 33-12 lead with two minutes remaining.

England were too little, too late in the final play of the match as Ozomoh got off a smart, flat mis-pass from captain Ford.

France: Atisogbe; Ambadiang, Deportere, Moefana, Arfeuille; Laughter, Le Garrec; Poirot, Lamothe, Falletta, Guillard (c), Staniforth, Matteo, Capilla, Gazzotti

Replacement: Massa, Verdi, Montagne, Palu, Tixeront, Jauneau, Desperes, Brou-Boiri

England XV: M Smith; Kaluri, Ozomoh, S Atkinson, Murley; Ford, Randall; Opoku-Fordjour, Dan, Kloska, Ewels, Martin, Hill, Curry, Dombrandt.

Replacement: Blamire, Obano, Sela, Isikwe, Cunningham, Quirke, Janse van Rensburg, Radwan.