Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson has insisted that their World Cup warm-up defeat to France is meaningless.
The World Cup hosts went down 25-20 in Paris on Saturday and, although Dawson admits that they were poor, he believes that they will be in top shape for the tournament.
He told The Express: "The players will debrief it and be very critical of themselves but, behind closed doors, they won't be too concerned. I don't see there being a huge telling-off. I've been a bit surprised by how everyone is deeming that game to be so crucial. It was a warm-up.
"There were so many mitigating factors for that performance - the players were probably a bit over-enthusiastic to perform and to impress and a lot of them hadn't played together for a long time.
"They weren't as sharp as they're going to be in two weeks' time against Ireland, or in a month's time against Fiji."
Stuart Lancaster names his 31-man squad on Thursday.
Charlie Bennett
