Ashton closes on RWC squad

"While I am very pleased, I am not jumping up and down with delight.

"The players were very realistic after the game. They talked about enjoying themselves on Saturday night but knowing when they come back to camp they have still got a fair bit of work to do."

England scored nine tries in the match against an understrength and underperforming Wales side, but Ashton singled out finishing off opportunities as the main area his players needed to improve.

"I felt for a 10-minute spell in the second half we created pretty clear-cut scoring chances and in different ways, we blew them," said Ashton, who may well have been thinking of Joe Worsley's decision to try to score himself with two unmarked three-quarters outside him.

"That is a communication breakdown and while you might expect that from a team playing its first game of the season, we have to set our sights and standards higher than that."

Lawrence Dallaglio replaced the four-try number eight Nick Easter to make his latest return to Test rugby, and Ashton said the 2003 World Cup winner had done everything asked of him so far.

"He played really well in big games at the end of last season but had to convince us he was fit after his operation, and he has done.

"Then when he got the opportunity he had to show us he was still good enough to make that step from club rugby to international level. I would suspect he is probably thinking he made a point when he came on.

"He had a hard act to follow in Nick Easter but he made a pretty good stab at it. The level of what was happening up front certainly didn't drop when he came on."

England captain Phil Vickery was taken off with an ankle injury at half-time, but Ashton said there were no major concerns.

"It is not a serious injury. We were going to replace him anyway and give Matt Stevens a run. We just did it a bit earlier as a precaution," he said.

Vickery confirmed that his ankle would heal quickly.

"'It is only a soft tissue injury to the left ankle, and it will be fine. I could play again tomorrow if I had to," he said.

But Vickery said England would have to steel themselves for a much more testing encounter against France on Saturday.

"It will be very difficult - they are always tough encounters, and I know from (Vickery's Wasps team-mate and France captain) Raphael Ibanez how disappointed they were about losing to England in the Six Nations."