Ashton says England must learn from defeat

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) - England coach Brian Ashton said he and his team probably learned more from Saturday's 21-15 defeat by France than from last week's record victory over a second-string Welsh team.

"It's a very angry dressing room at the moment," Ashton told a news conference after his team failed to score a try against the World Cup hosts, who managed one in each half to snatch an evenly-balanced Twickenham clash.

"I hope the message we did learn today was that we worked incredibly hard to get in a position to win the game, making three or four opportunities to score in the second half, but blew every single one of them.

"You don't win big games playing like that and you don't win World Cups like that."

Ashton, with probably half his first-choice side on show, was given a harsh reminder that the pure forward power that did for Wales will not be enough against the cannier sides in the tournament, which begins in four weeks.

"I thought we competed pretty well in every area against a pretty strong French selection," he said. "We made a substantial number of changes and so obviously it was a lot tougher task this week. I thought we defended very well, tackled well but the second-half execution let us down."

Ashton will name his 30-man World Cup squad on Tuesday and said he was very close to knowing its composition.

"I'll have a chat with the other coaches tonight and will then be in a position to take it forward," he said.