England has overcome France 36-6 in their World Cup Pool A clash at Perth Stadium on Sunday night.
Les Chanticleers needed to beat their traditional rivals to have a chance of playing in the quarter-finals, yet England snuffed out any chance of that happening with four tries inside the first 20 minutes.
Gareth Widdop opened England's scoring in the second minute after ghosting through on the right side, and Stefan Ratchford crossed two minutes later on the same edge.
James Graham made it three tries in 10 minutes, before Mark Percival scored in the 18th minute after some quick passing.
John Bateman crossed before the end of the half to make it a 26-point lead, but France finally had some joy when Benjamin Garcia managed to dive over from dummy half to score.
Jermaine McGillvary scored his seventh try in as many Test appearances in the corner after a French mistake straight after half-time.
France will rue their errors and missed tackles - they had 26 by half-time alone - but gave a much better account of themselves in the second half.
England will now play Papua New Guinea in a World Cup quarter-final in Melbourne next week.
England 36 (Jermaine McGillvary 2, Gareth Widdop, Stefan Ratchford, James Graham, Mark Percival, John Bateman tries; Widdop 4 goals) defeated France 6 (Benjamin Garcia try; Lucas Albert ≥goal) at Perth Stadium. Half-time: 26-6. Crowd: 14,744.
