Smith's England led 44-0 at the interval

England coach Tony Smith singled out Richie Myler and Sam Burgess for special praise after his side's 66-12 victory over France in Paris.

Man-of-the-match Myler collected 30 of England's points, made up of a hat-trick of tries and nine conversions.

"Sam Burgess was outstanding and although Myler will catch the headlines for the tries there were terrific passages of play," said Smith.

"Myler deserves a lot of the attention he is going to receive."

He added: "But it was the combinations that helped him along and he will admit that."

Ryan Atkins, Danny McGuire, Peter Fox (two), Ryan Hall, Shaun Briscoe (two), James Roby and Burgess also chipped in with tries at the Stade Jean-Bouin in the friendly.

"That first half was one France would want to forget," said Smith, referring to England's 44-0 lead at the interval.

"Once we were on that roll, it's difficult to stop with the big team we had out there. I felt for them (France) in that respect.

606: DEBATE If we call this game preparation for the 4 nations contest, we must be kidding ourselves fcmobydick

"But we needed to be professional when that scoreline starts to rack up, and we were.

"I couldn't have asked for too much more. There were some terrific combinations right across the field."

Former Great Britain scrum-half Bobby Goulding, who was taking charge of France for the first time, admitted his side were outclassed.

"Once a team gets a roll on, it's very hard to stop, and you saw that in the first half," said Goulding.

"They kept on running hard at us. We competed in the first, second and third tackles, but it was the fourth, fifth and sixth that killed us.

"But the lads tried. We just have to pick ourselves up and have another go."

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