I don't see the point in England playing them every year, they are so far below the level of the elite that it serves zero purpose in terms of preparation.

I would rather see England play the knights as a warm up.

maybe they should of played Leigh instead of England to balance the skill level on the field

Slightly unfair comparison with Fiji and Tonga, who fill their national team with "Aussies" and "Kiwis".
They both played with immense pride in the World Cup but, France dont have the same advantage when it comes down to having qualifying grandparents etc.

The only way fro France to become more competitive is to have more full time professional French players, which means having more playing in SL (either for Catalan or other SL clubs) but, how can this happen with just one French club in the elite competition ?

A bit unfair that Snowie, Leigh haven't even got a team, but I know what you mean.

Fair enough if you argue that half the team are semi-pro, but you have to then ask the question why they are playing a test match against England every year? It can't do those players any favours to go out and get pumped by half an England team.

From an England perspective, there's not a lot to be gained from that preparation, we are going into a test series pretty cold, whilst the Kiwi's are coming over off the back of winning a high-intensity, high-quality game against Australia.

Some England players haven’t played in a month, they needed a game prior to the Kiwis.

France without their injury crisis and players missing due to playing in the Grand Final would have been much stronger.