Defending champions England produced a woeful performance in their opening match of the World Cup as they struggled to defeat part-timers USA 28-10 in Lens.

Coach Brian Ashton fielded what was supposed to be his strongest line-up but they failed to perform against a side that they were expected to beat comfortably.

England scored first half tries through Jason Robinson and Olly Barkley (pictured) to lead 21-3 at the interval.

Although Tom Rees added another try within 10 minutes of the restart, the second-half avalanche many were expecting never materialised and it was the Americans who took the game to England.

Matekitonga Moeakiola scored the USA's one try late in the second half, while fly-half Mike Hercus added the conversion to an early penalty.

Barkley was also on target with three penalties and two conversions for a personal haul of 18 points.

There were very few positives for Ashton to take from the performance though Barkley at least put his hand up for selection for next Friday's crucial pool game against South Africa.

If Jonny Wilkinson recovers from his ankle injury then Ashton must surely play Barkley man at inside centre, ahead of both Mike Catt and Andy Farrell.

On this evidence England will not only struggle against the Springboks but they will also find life very difficult against Samoa and Tonga.

They were certainly no where near the class of New Zealand and Australia, who earlier in the day had each put more than 70 points past opponents of a similar calibre to the Americans, and in Italy's case significantly better.

The defending champions could not even secure a bonus point as they fell short of the required four tries, while the Wallabies and All Blacks crossed for 13 and 11 tries respectively.

England were dragged into a type of game they did not want to play and credit must be given to the Eagles, who were level at 3-3 after 20 minutes, with Barkley and Hercus having swapped penalties.

Barkley apart, there was again a real lack of creativity from England's backs and even when England decided to keep it tight and to try and grind down their opponents, their basics did not serve them well enough.

Hooker Mark Regan struggled to find his jumpers at the line-out while Lawrence Dallaglio and Phil Vickery looked shadows of their former selves.

Rees and prop Andrew Sheridan featured in the loose but too often England were unable to impress their game on the plucky Americans.

Wing Josh Lewsey also had a few stand out moments, but with Mark Cueto struggling at full-back Ashton must surely consider handing back the number 15 jersey to the Wasps player.

England's opening try came in the 25th minute after Lewsey opened up the American defence. The ball was recycled and Catt kicked to the corner for Robinson to claim the ball and trot over unopposed.

Five minutes later England produced their best passage of play of the whole game. Again Lewsey made some ground and after the ball was moved through several pairs of hands lock Ben Kay supplied a lovely soft pass for Barkley to go over in the right corner.

Barkley nailed the conversion to give England some heart as they went into the break.

Whatever Ashton said behind closed doors at half-time it failed to hit home as England were even more disappointing in the second half.

Indeed, it was the Americans who first came closest to scoring when wing Salesi Sika was put clear down the right and only a tackle from Robinson kept him out.

Soon after, a powerful charge from Sheridan, one of several from the Sale prop, took England deep into the USA's half.

Although the move broke down, England were awarded a scrum and when the Americans collapsed Rees took a quick tap and powered over from 10 yards.

Barkley added the conversion and with England leading 28-3 with 30 minutes to go, the defending champions had time to rescue their performance.

But it never happened and their supposed superior fitness failed to tell.

Instead the Americans grew in confidence, with scrum-half Chad Erskine and centres Paul Emerik and Vahafolau Esikia taking the game to England at every opportunity.

Ashton made a raft of substitutions and Barkley continued to make ground, but the Americans refused to lie down.

When substitute Matthew Tait was caught trying to break out of defence, Hercus kicked America deep into England's half.

Dallaglio was sin-binned for killing the ball and soon after Moeakiola wrestled over for a well-deserved American try.

England tried in vain to end the game on a high, but the more they tried the more the Eagles knocked them backwards, though their finish was slightly soured when Emerik was sin-binned for a spear tackle on Barkley.

Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport