England have looked the form side of the northern hemisphere teams during the autumnn clashes with their southern hemisphere opponents, beating Australia in stirring fashion, doing a professional job over Samoa and putting up a good fight with Tri Nations champions New Zealand.
Performances that have evidently impressed Lievremont, who as a player suffered several big match defeats at their hands and endured probably his worst moment as a coach when the English humiliated his side last year in their Six Nations match at Twickenham.
"Obviously, when one assesses our tactics this autumn one can say, bloody hell, we are still at the stage of trial and error and groping around. I think it is difficult to compare with the English team, who at the moment are fine tuning their rugby better," said Lievremont.
"When one realises that the English have twice as much time for recuperation in the close season so that they can work on things, that they play half the amount of matches that we do, that they have one week long training camp plus three others of four days each, it is logical that at this period of time the English would be a more effective and cohesive unit."
Lievremont, who was a member of the France side that reached the 1999 World Cup final where they lost to Australia, said there were reasons for France's lacking the same spark and fluidity that they had during the Six Nations which saw them capture it for the first time since 2004.
"The essential thing is that we remain convinced of the quality and potential of the squad, that we are satisfied with the effort of the players, that there is a certain amount of progress.
"And above all that our plans are accepted and put into practice by the players. Obviously that is everything one could ask for without it being a perfect finished article."
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