While France stuttered to victories over Fiji and Argentina before being humiliated by Australia in the autumn, England pushed the All Blacks hard and produced a stunning attacking performance when they saw off the Wallabies.

Half-backs Ben Youngs and Toby Flood were instrumental in that 35-18 victory and former Toulouse scrum-half Elissalde, now backs coach at the Top 14 giants, believes with the Leicester pair have been instrumental in England’s change of fortune.

He said: “If the World Cup was tomorrow England would be the European side most capable of going far. They are the best side in the Northern Hemisphere.

“We’ve seen a different side to them where they’ve tried to pass a lot more with a clear intention to get the ball wide.

“I really like Ben Youngs, and with a classical fly-half in Toby Flood, they have been able to put the game they want to play in place.

“A lot of England’s progress has been down to this half back partnership who have been together for a while now.

“They also have a very good back row so we’ll have to be wary of them come the World Cup.”

Elissalde, who retired from playing this summer after constant injuries, was back in action for the French Barbarians as they took on Tonga in Grenoble.

He took to the field alongside a number of players left out of Marc Lièvremont’s French squad, as well as new Toulouse signing Rupeni Caucaunibuca, who was making his long-awaited return to the game.

And the 33-year-old feels that several of his players were hard done by on missing out on France’s November tests.

“I watch the French team as an outsider but I’m very disappointed for my players because their morale takes a hit when they aren’t selected and indirectly it affects their form,” he added.

“David Skrela, Clément Poitrenaud and Maxime Médard all deserved to be picked, and Vincent Clerc and Florian Fritz weren’t far off either.

“But they all have the potential to go to the World Cup, and if they are good enough at Toulouse, I have no doubt they will.

“You can do all the experimenting you want but when it comes down to the knockout stages of a World Cup, it will be the best players on the pitch.

“For me the Tonga game was a chance to make people happy but the important thing for me was that my teammates from Toulouse didn’t get injured.

“A match against the Tongans was always going to be tough as I hadn’t trained at all because my new job takes up most of my time.

“It did me good to sit down with the guys and laugh with them again. I played for seven years with some of them so I was worried the transition to coach was going to be tricky.

“But in the end it was very natural. I was honest with the players and they understood that I had changed status.

“It was interesting to see Caucau play again, to see where his level was physically.

“We’ll try to bring him back into the side but I think he still has another month to go before playing regularly for the first team.”