France 6 England 40

WIDNES Vikings skipper Kevin Brown gave England head coach Wayne Bennett food for thought in a try-scoring return to the international scene against France.

Half back Brown came off the bench to break a 20-minute deadlock in the scoring and spark a late points rally for his country in Avignon.

England, in Bennett’s first game in charge, led 22-6 at half time courtesy of tries from Ryan Hall, two, Daryl Clark and Tom Burgess, with Gareth Widdop landing the first three of his six conversions in total.

Jermaine McGillvary and Widdop joined Brown in crossing for further tries in the final quarter, watched on by a crowd of 14,276 at Parc Des Sports.

Mike Cooper was involved in an early flare up, Ben Garcia not taking too kindly to the Warrington 2017 signing’s shot as third man over the top.

Players ran in as some early aggression was in evidence in its rawest form.

Mark Percival, alert on his debut to a potential interception as England launched their first threatening attack in the 10th minute, palmed on a looping pass to Ryan Hall and the Leeds winger used his brute strength to try and force his way over in the corner.

Referee Phil Bentham sent the decision to video referee Robert Hicks and after three minutes of replay studies it was ruled Hall lost possession in the act of attempting to touch down.

Cooper was held short in the 13th minute as England attempted to capitalise on forcing a repeat set from a Luke Gale grubber kick.

On the back of a penalty England had another six tackles in the France half but the home resistance was strong and Percival was swallowed up by fast advancing defenders on the last tackle.

It was France who took the lead with a try from Leigh Centurions-bound hooker Pelissier, just three minutes after joining the action off the bench.

A 40-20 from Tony Gigot set up the opportunity and after a surging drive from Remi Casty his 2016 Catalans Dragons teammate Pelissier kept himself low as he exploded out of dummy half to defy Josh Hodgson and Jonny Lomax from 10 metres and dive over.

Gigot landed the extras from the right of the posts to make it 6-0 after 18 minutes.

An England response almost came off when Jonny Lomax dinked a kick through for Percival to chase but the French defence cleared the danger.

Lomax’s creativity paid off on the next attacking set though with Gale, Widdop and then the Saints full back chiming in and passing fast and long for Hall to canter over after 27 minutes. Widdop converted from the touchline for 6-6.

Hooker Daryl Clark joined the action but Lomax was instrumental again in the restart set when he popped up on the right to set McGillvary free, with the Huddersfield winger’s kick ahead being rewarded with a repeat set.

Hodgson, now operating at loose forward, was stopped short but Clark fired over from dummy half, brushing off Pelissier in the process. Again Widdop was on target as England moved in front for the first time at 12-6.

From another repeat set England struck again, with Clark the orchestrator.

He laid off a perfect pass for big Tom Burgess to power over the top of Kevin Larroyer from short range and Widdop was on the mark again with 34 minutes played.

Percival bravely swooped on a loose ball and got a knee to the head from Garcia for his trouble, with the penalty putting England back on the attack with Stefan Ratchford now in the full-back role in place of Jonny Lomax.

It allowed England to finish the half positively and a super long ball from Widdop put Hall over for his second try with the last play of the half, which ended 22-6 after Widdop’s first conversion miss.

A wonderful crunching tackle from Clark at the start of the second half left Wigan-bound prop Romain Navarrete feeling like he had been split in two and doubling over in pain.

Early England pressure came to nothing and by the time Brown entered the fray in the 52nd minute his first duties were in defence after the visitors conceded a succession of penalties.

By the 60th-minute mark no scoring had been added and Bennett made further changes, bringing Lomax back on at full-back and switching Ratchford to right centre in place of Kallum Watkins.

Brown, leaving the French defence wondering, sold a dummy and went over from first receiver in the 68th minute to get the scoreboard working again. Widdop converted.

There was a worrying sign for England when skipper James Graham left the field in a dazed state in the 69th minute, with Pelissier following him as he went to the sin bin for the offending spear tackle.

Moments later, after another penalty to England, McGillvary went over in the right corner after some silky handling from Lomax and Ratchford.

Widdop’s fifth conversion from six attempts extended England’s lead to 34-6.

Hodgson’s offload helped set up England’s seventh try, with the supporting Brown looking up and kicking ahead for Widdop to regather and convert himself.

It was the last incident of note to complete England’s warm-up ahead of their opening game in the Ladbrokes Four Nations against New Zealand at a sold-out John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield next Saturday.

France: Tony Gigot; Mathias Pala, Ben Garcia, Vincent Duport, Olivier Arnaud; Stan Robin, William Barthau; Romain Navarrete, Arix Da Costa, Remi Casty, Mickael Simon, Benjamin Jullien, Julien Bousquet. Subs: Eloi Pelissier, Mickael Goudemand, Gadwin Springer, Kevin Larroyer.

England: Jonny Lomax; Jermaine McGillvary, Kallum Watkins, Mark Percival, Ryan Hall; Gareth Widdop, Luke Gale; James Graham, Josh Hodgson, Scott Taylor, Elliott Whitehead, Mike Cooper, Tom Burgess. Subs: George Burgess, Kevin Brown, Stefan Ratchford, Daryl Clark.