England’s very first attack delivered a sublime try for Murley as Seb Atkinson ran hard, pulled a pass out the back and accurate work from Harry Randall and Caluori transferred wide for the Harlequins man to hold off the covering Theo Attisogbe and get in at the corner.

That slick first-phase score arrived inside 50 seconds.

France got a grip on much of the rest of the first half.

England hooker Theo Dan had already managed to deny Esteban Capilla, ripping the ball loose over the tryline, before Nicolas Depoortere, playing for the first time since dislocating his shoulder in the Six Nations defeat by Scotland in March, barged over on eight minutes.

The lively Gregoire Arfeuil followed soon after, gliding onto Yoram Moefana’s neat inside ball to give France a 14-5 lead.

England’s attempts to fight back were undermined by understandable handling errors from a make-shift side, also lacking mainstays such as Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Ollie Chessum, Ben Spencer and Joe Heyes, in their first match of the summer.

Despite that there were promising combinations between Max Ojomoh and Murley in wide channels and full-back Marcus Smith dovetailed nicely with fly-half George Ford, stepping in to first receiver at times.

And on the stroke of half-time, another first-phase strike move delivered with Caluori in off his wing to put Smith into a hole. Smith stepped off his left foot, leaving the cover defence behind, and went in under the posts to take his team down the tunnel just two points adrift at 14-12.

But France’s determination not to die with the ball and daring to run it from deep paid off after the break.

Scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec, playing at his boyhood club, scampered over for a hugely popular score before Antoine Hastoy wormed over at the end of another sweeping move that England could never pin down.

Caluori had a try wiped off from a knock-on by replacement hooker Jamie Blamire, but England couldn’t get a real toehold as they toiled at the set-piece.

A horrible defensive lapse allowed Baptiste Jauneau to tap-and-go through the heart of where the visiting defence should be and put fellow replacement Fabien Brau-Boirie under the posts for a 33-12 lead with two minutes to go.

England rallied too little, too late, with Ojomoh going in from a smart, flat mis-pass from captain Ford in the final play of the match.

France: Attissogbe; Ambadiang, Depoortere, Moefana, Arfeuil; Hastoy, Le Garrec; Poirot, Lamothe, Falatea, Guillard (c), Staniforth, Matiu, Capilla, Gazzotti

Replacements: Massa, Wardi, Montagne, Palu, Tixeront, Jauneau, Desperes, Brau-Boirie

England XV: M Smith; Caluori, Ojomoh, S Atkinson, Murley; Ford, Randall; Opoku-Fordjour, Dan, Kloska, Ewels, Martin, Hill, Curry, Dombrandt.

Replacements: Blamire, Obano, Sela, Isiekwe, Kenningham, Quirke, Janse van Rensburg, Radwan.