The Leicester Tigers fly-half converted three of England’s first-half tries and added a penalty as the hosts ran into a 29-0 interval lead in the fourth round of the RBS 6 Nations. But he left the field after landing awkwardly in the build-up to the fourth try.
Tigers team-mate Tom Croft received the RBS man-of-the-match award, while Harry Ellis was heavily involved before being replaced in the 55th minute and prop Julian White had two spells on the pitch as a second-half blood replacement for Phil Vickery and then taking Andrew Sheridan’s place in the closing stages.
Flood converted a try scored by Mark Cueto after just 69 seconds and stretched the lead to double figures with an 18th-minute penalty.
Riki Flutey was the next scorer, Flood converted and, after Croft had been denied a try by a forward pass, fly-half Flood turned Delon Armitage’s touchdown into a seven-point score as the advantage reached 24-0.
Flood’s last contribution was a ran for the tryline just before the interval and, while he nursed a shoulder injury, Joe Worsley dived in for England’s fourth try.
Flutey added another score in the opening minutes of the second half but France got off the mark with a try from Dimitri Szarzewski just before he was replaced by Tigers hooker Benjamin Kayser in the 58th minute.
Martin Castrogiovanni was a 50th-minute replacement as Italy made Wales work hard for a 20-15 victory in Rome, while Geordan Murphy made a last-minute appearance for Ireland as they maintained hopes of a Grand Slam with a 22-15 win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
All three Leicester players in the England Under-20 squad saw some of the action in a 31-11 defeat by France at Worcester on Friday evening.
Full-back Greig Tonks played the first 71 minutes before being replaced by clubmate Will Hurrell for the closing stages, while scrum-half Sam Harrison appeared as a 47th-minute replacement.
