England scrape by France but supporters know that improvement is necessary

Saturday so nearly saw the two Six Nations favourites succumb to opening day defeats.

But where Ireland failed to hold their nerve and allowed Scotland to kick their way to victory at the death, England turned on the afterburners to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when they hosted France later that afternoon. It was a tight encounter in Twickenham and one which required an hour for the game's first try as Les Bleus nudged their noses in front via a Rabah Slimani try and conversion. The upset was on but former Leinster man Ben Te'o profited from waves of England pressure and burst over for the home side's first try of the game. Owen Farrell made no mistake from the tee and Eddie Jones watched on as his team, buoyed and energised by the impact of late substitutes, saw out the 19-16 win. It wasn't a classic. It wasn't as comfortable as pundits had predicted. And while a win is most definitely a win, supporters acknowledged the need for a marked improvement if England are to fulfil the lofty expectations that have been thrust on them in the build up to the tournament. https://twitter.com/cowburn_/status/827949425171582978 https://twitter.com/WilsonFC2012/status/827950317278990337 https://twitter.com/JoeAFC_/status/827950304079572992 https://twitter.com/gedge82/status/827950298660478978 https://twitter.com/MartinJBragg/status/827950407431368704 https://twitter.com/HarvEltham/status/827950259376705536 https://twitter.com/marchCF96/status/827950276275531782 https://twitter.com/theascroft/status/827950697958236160 https://twitter.com/SarahAWigmore/status/827950615779213312 https://twitter.com/neilc9/status/827950753180418052 https://twitter.com/mumphtoons/status/827950655562215425