Newcastle Stadium 16th October 2022, St James Park, Newcastle. 43,000 Attendance.
England opened their Rugby League World Cup 2021 campaign against Samoa at Newcastle’s St James Park on Saturday, where the host nation blew away their opponents 60-4 with an impressive team display.
Toa Samoa came into the game as short-priced favourites with the bookies. Fielding a host of State of Origin, NRL Premiership winning, players and even former Kangaroos stars who had defected in order to boost international Rugby League’s very own dream team.
However, what looked like a studded team written on paper, was defeated by the host nation, as the English, whilst not high in star power, roared home as a to put all the pre-match hype to bed.
The opening 10-minutes was a real arm wrestle to get points on the board. Brisbane Bronco’s Herbie Farnsworth went close with the VAR. It was England, not Samoa who seized the initiative.
Former Canberra star George Williams busted through some lazy defence, before finding Jack Welsby who opened the scoring to the delight of the English crowd.
What was interesting was the contrasting styles of Super League and NRL on display, as Welsby ran and ran at Samoa busting them through the middle – as he run them tired. A throwback to the old English play of Shaun Edwards used to play at Standoff for Wigan and England -you might as well call him a spare centre in the middle of the park. It was enjoyable to watch the contrasting styles of NRL and Super League on display in Newcastle.
The Lions were only 18-6 up at Half Time, only conceding to an intercept try against the run of play. The stadium was confident but wary, expecting a strong Samoa in the second half but that never materialised.
Salford’s Kallum Watkins resumed play in the second half with a typical jink, step try that was a welcome return to the England side. NRL fans had expected much from him from his ill-fated move with the Gold Coast Titans.
Samoa’s Anthony Milford then got himself 10-minutes in the Sin Bin for an awful late hit on Sam Tomkins. Samoa began to capitulate as the English ran in 36 points for the final 17 minutes. Elliot Whitehead scored two tries in Four minutes and Farnsworth completing a double. Tommy Makinson got a try of his own, converting 10 goals and combining 24 points for the match. It seemed at this could do no wrong. By the 79th minute, Sydney Roosters lock Victor Radley kicked a 40/20 and Tom Burgess for goodness sakes, was the final try scorer.
Heres what they said:
England head coach Shaun Wane: “Nobody gave us a chance to win the game,” the England coach said. “But within our group we knew what we can do. We enjoyed all that negativity, to be honest.
“We’re just happy to do what we do, whatever people comment. That’s up to them. We’re not going round thinking we can’t improve, though, because we have to get better.”
Samoa head coach Matt Parish. “”England had momentum and we couldn’t swing it back. We always knew we were a bit underdone but didn’t expect a result like that.”
Editors comment November 8th 2022– The two sides will meet again in the Semi-Finals of the tournament. After England overcame PNG midweek and Samoa stepped up to beat Tonga 20-18 at the Halliwell-Jones stadium in Warrington. Samoa, having over come Tonga, will no doubt have improved as the tournament progresses to London where a spot in the final awaits.
