England appear set to extend their unbeaten run over France when the two teams square off in the final World Cup group fixture on Sunday night in Perth.
England v France Prediction
England v France Preview and Tips
Regarded as the team mostly likely to challenge Australia’s World Cup title defence, England look to end the group stage on a high and set up a likely quarter-final showdown with Papua New Guinea - which would be a very interesting tussle.
England kept pace with Australia for the majority of their opening clash and only lost the game in the final 10 minutes or so, while they were more polished against Lebanon last week, cruising to a 29-10 win.
Wayne Bennett won’t want his side displaying any lethargic tendencies with the explosive PNG waiting in the knockout stages, so expect the Poms to show no mercy against a French side they’ve beaten in all six of their previous meetings.
France’s tournament unfortunately ended when they lost to Lebanon in their first group outing a fortnight ago.
The loss left France needing to beat one of Australia or England to make the quarter-finals, and while they kept it close in the first 30 minutes against the Kangaroos, they ultimately leaked 50 points and were never in the hunt.
France have lost by more than 28 points in their last five encounters with England, and they don’t appear likely to generate any improvement on Sunday. England to sail into the quarter-finals with a big win.
England v France Stats
- England have won all six of their previous meetings
- England won their last clash 34-6 in 2013
- First meeting outside of Europe
England v France Teams
England squad: 1 Gareth Widdop 2 Stefan Ratchford 3 Mark Percival 4 John Bateman 5 Jermaine McGillvary 6 Kevin Brown 7 Luke Gale 8 Chris Hill 9 James Roby 10 James Graham 11 Ben Currie 12 Mike McMeeken 13 Sean O’Loughlin (c) 14 Alex Walmsley 15 Thomas Burgess 16 Scott Taylor 17 George Williams 18 Ryan Hall 19 Elliott Whitehead 20 Chris Heighington 21 Kallum Watkins
France squad: 1 Mark Kheirallah 2 Fouad Yaha 3 Bastien Ader 4 Damien Cardace 5 Ilias Bergal 6 Theo Fages (c) 7 Lucas Albert 8 Antoni Maria 9 John Boudebza 10 Julian Bousquet 11 Benjamin Garcia 12 Benjamin Jullien 13 Jason Baitieri 14 Romain Navarrete 15 Thibault Margalet 16 Maxime Herold 17 Remy Marginet 18 Olivier Arnaud 19 Mickael Rouch 20 Nabil Djalout 23 Lambert Belmas
England v France Tips