England captain Chris Robshaw has admitted that his team let themselves down as they crashed to a 25-20 defeat to France, just four weeks before the World Cup begins.
France dominated the first half and led 15-6 at the break, before Yoann Huget put them further ahead with the game's first try seven minutes into the second period.
Late tries from Danny Cipriani and Jonathan Joseph brought England close to an unlikely victory.
Robshaw told Sky Sports News: "In the first half we were shocking with our discipline. We gave too many penalties away, but give us credit, in the second half we came out and played well but couldn't quite get over the line in the end. We can't give teams like France and other quality sides head starts like we did.
"Credit to France, they put us under pressure and made us make mistakes. Whether it was rust, or nerves in the first half, I don't know. It wasn't good enough and we've got a big two weeks before the Ireland match, and then looking ahead to the World Cup.
"We'll look long and hard at ourselves. We let ourselves down in the first half. We played well in phases but you can't wait for 40 minutes to do that."
England face Ireland in two weeks' time.
Charlie Bennett
