Rugby World Cup
Chris Robshaw says England must 'hit the ground running'
Tom Hamilton
August 24, 2015
© Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

PARIS, France -- England captain Chris Robshaw has warned his team they cannot afford to be as ill disciplined as they were in Paris come the Rugby World Cup.

The tournament hosts were at one stage 25-6 down against France but eventually rallied to get within five points of Les Bleus thanks to late tries from Jonathan Joseph and Danny Cipriani.

Those scores glossed over what was a poor performance from Stuart Lancaster's side as their ill discipline allowed France's kickers to build a lead from the tee while they failed to get any front-foot ball due to their faltering set piece.

Robshaw's men now have one more warm-up match before their World Cup opener against Fiji on Sep. 18 and he admits they cannot allow any team to pull away on the scoreboard like France did.

"You can't give a team like France a lead like that," Robshaw said.

"All of sudden you're looking at the scoreboard and thinking that there's a lot of work to do here. It is tough rugby. But that is the way it is.

"When you go to a World Cup, it is knockout rugby for us from day one. You need to make sure you hit the ground running. You can't afford to give any teams a lead like that. Credit to France but we are annoyed with ourselves."

England's set piece has faltered in the two games against France with the lineout a primary area of concern.

Robshaw would not be drawn on whether Dylan Hartley's absence is one of the reasons behind the lack of clean ball at the lineout but insisted there was no reason to panic.

"I don't think there's a big problem across the board," Robshaw said.

"I think it was just a couple of inconsistencies. There were times when we scrummed, mauled and did our lineouts extremely well. There were times when it didn't quite function as well. I don't think there's a huge drama. There are little bits of detail we need to fix up and hopefully that will get us back to where we need to be.

"All the players are looking to improve and with our biggest tournament just around the corner we need to make sure we hit the ground running."

© Tom Hamilton

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