England warm-up win puts World Cup heat on lineout, scrum and midfield

France were defeated 19-14 at Twickenham but too few of Stuart Lancaster’s pack dogs barked and the return match in Paris gains in intensityWarm-up games tell us everything and nothing and here, ultimately, was another example of it. The real answers are not yet available and not all the questions being asked in mid-August will be strictly relevant. To a large extent it was sufficient that England won at home, showed a few inspirational flashes and kept the medical staff largely underemployed.A hard-earned if flawed victory will always rate higher than an unscheduled defeat on these occasions …