Back came England however with Owen Farrell – and latterly Toby Flood – keeping the scoreboard ticking over from the tee, while Manu Tuilagi scored his side’s only try after the break.

In the end, with Flood notching two late penalties, England ran out comfortable 23-13 winners, but Lancaster admits his side were pushed all the way for their third consecutive win of this year’s RBS 6 Nations.

“That wasn’t the France we saw play a couple of weeks ago,” said Lancaster. “That was a really, really strong well motivated French team who caused us a lot of problems in all sorts of areas.

“But to show the composure we did and to be the better side at the end by controlling the game was good. It was hard work and it took 65-70 minutes to do it.

“We gave away a soft try on the blind-side. Fofana’s try is one we shouldn’t give away at this level. I thought our composure grew in the second half. We weren’t panicking at half-time, we knew if we kept the tempo high it would help us close the game out.”

France head coach Philippe Saint-Andre made numerous changes to his side for the trip to Twickenham but most telling was the introduction of new half-back pairing Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc in place of Maxime Machenaud and Frederic Michalak.

And Lancaster admitted he was a relieved man when he saw both Parra and Trinh-Duc depart the field in the second half.

He added: “I thought we gained ascendancy when Parra and Trinh-Duc came off, there is no doubt about it.

“As a coach I’m thinking about my own substitutions but you do cast a glance at the ones the opposition are making.

“As they came off, I suppose they wanted to try and break the game up, but it played into our hands and we just grew stronger.”