England head coach Steve McNamara has said that he expected better from his team despite them beating France 34-6 to reach the last four of the Rugby League World Cup.

The host nation fell behind after four minutes at the DW Stadium, but braces from Josh Charnley and Ryan Hall, and further scores from Sean O'Loughlin and Brett Ferres saw them overcome Richard Agar's side.

McNamara was not happy with the number of errors his team committed, but remains confident that the problems will be rectified ahead of their semi-final clash against New Zealand.

"It was very scratchy, it was disappointing tonight," Sky Sports News quotes the 42-year-old as saying. "We've done enough to win the game and the scoreboard looks reasonable but the performance was way, way down from what we expect.

"We respected France going into game but the way we approached the game and the amount of errors we committed, particularly in the second half, was extraordinary.

"We'll be alright for next week, we'll be back to our best I'm sure, but there's a lot of work to do between now and then."

Australia will face the winner between Samoa and Fiji in the other semi-final.