France 22, England 9.

Lawrence Dallaglio emerged from the ruins left by England's latest calamitous away day collapse, and conceded: ''This has given us a bit of a reality check.''

England did nothing to disprove the popular theory their miserable reign as world champions will end in early October when they return to the intimidating Stade Velodrome.

Assuming England emerge from a World Cup qualifying pool that also features South Africa and Samoa, Australia or Wales should be waiting for them at the quarter-final stage.

Wales will be significantly stronger than the third-rate team humbled 62-5 by Dallaglio and company at Twickenham two weeks ago, and current world rankings suggest Australia are too strong for an England side boasting a heavyweight pack but precious little else.

In successive warm-up games against France, all England's points came from kicks, while the organised French scored three well-crafted tries and showed composure at key times during the heat of battle.

The statistics make for damning reading.

Since Martin Johnson held aloft the Webb Ellis Trophy in Sydney almost four years ago, England have claimed just 16 victories from 40 starts and lost 15 of their last 16 away games, including nine in succession.

No frills France simply bided their time before sending England spinning to another totally predictable defeat on the back of centre Yannick Jauzion's touchdown and 17 points from goalkickers Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak.

Critically, England conceded 10 points while lock Simon Shaw was in the sin-bin following a high tackle on Damien Traille, and with concussed captain Phil Vickery having already been carried off, there was no way back.

Dallaglio, a second-half replacement for the wholly ineffective Harlequins number eight Nick Easter, said: ''When you are down a man like that, you have got to redouble your efforts.

''There will be times in the World Cup when we might be down a man, and we've got to learn to be able to cope. That said, I didn't think it was a sin-binning - Simon hit him on the shoulder.

''But we contributed to our own downfall by giving away so many penalties.

''We didn't have much of a cutting edge, but tries were always going to be at a premium. Our problem was we were never really on the front foot after the first 10 minutes. It has given us a bit of a reality check.

"We've got a couple of weeks to learn from this, and we've got to make sure we don't make the same mistakes in our World Cup campaign.''

Dallaglio's optimism will not be shared.

Not only are England likely to bow out of World Cup contention early, current evidence suggests they could depart with barely a whimper.

Jonny Wilkinson's left boot will not be sufficient to bring home rugby union's biggest prize this time around, not when it comes to stopping teams like the Springboks, New Zealand or France.

Wilkinson's penalty hat-trick took him past Australian Michael Lynagh into third place on Test rugby's all-time points chart - Wilkinson now has 915 - yet in keeping with so many other England players, his general game was poor.

Wilkinson talked about ''holding our discipline'' and ''knowing what the answer is,'' yet England patently lack the all-round game to make any significant World Cup impact.

Individuals like Easter, Bath lock Steve Borthwick and Saracens centre Andy Farrell - who were all challenged to produce telling performances by head coach Brian Ashton - wilted under pressure.

Had it not been for the tireless efforts of scrum-half Shaun Perry or flanker Tom Rees - allied with France blowing another probable 15 points through wasteful finishing or inaccurate kicking - England would have suffered a fearful drubbing.

England are confident their World Cup captain Phil Vickery will be fit for the tournament.

The Wasps prop was concussed in a midfield collision. Early signs did not look good as Vickery was carried off but the England camp remain positive about his recovery prospects.

''Phil is fine,'' said England head coach Brian Ashton. ''I had breakfast with him this morning.

''The (England) doctor said to me you just do not know in these situations until 24 or 48 hours down the line.

''He said 50per cent of guys (concussed) in the Guinness Premiership play the following week, and the way Phil was this morning, the indication is he will be fine come the World Cup.''

England begin their World Cup campaign against the USA in Lens on September 8, followed by a crunch pool appointment with South Africa six days later.

Vickery spent several weeks sidelined last season after being felled by a punch in a Premiership game against Bristol, with concussion again the medical diagnosis.