ENGLAND polished their preparations for the World Cup in record-breaking style to win an embarrassingly one-sided Gillette Fusion international with a performance which will do their confidence no harm at all.
For all the obvious weakness of an in
experienced Wales team, an England team missing the 15 players involved in last week's Super League grand final did everything asked of them in front of a crowd of 11,263 at Doncaster.
Fourteen tries, including eight from players who will board the plane bound for Australia on Monday, saw England complete their biggest win over Wales in the 64th meeting between them.
Rob Purdham, the Harlequins captain, also entered the record books with his 22-point haul, from a try and nine goals, beating the 21 by Geoff Pimblett at St Helens in 1978.
It was all too easy for England at times, especially in the first half which ended with them holding an authoritative
42-point lead over opponents who were hopelessly outclassed.
At half-time the Wales Under-18s, who had won the recent European Championships in Prague, were presented with medals commemorating their achievement and it was hard to escape the view that they might have fared better against England than their senior counterparts.
Tony Smith had told his players that Wales would play with pride, but England cannot have expected their opponents to be so bereft of ability as they appeared before the break.
To add insult to injury, Wales had a perfectly good 'try' ruled out because of a mistake by referee Steve Ganson, who blew his whistle too early as Aled James crashed over in the right corner from a cheeky kick by Bradford's Dave Halley.
Halley endured a fraught time at the other end as the last line of defence for a team which appeared to have forgotten how to tackle, an unfortunate failing given the hunger England displayed in attack.
England scored eight tries in the first half, including two each for Paul Sykes and captain for the night Martin Gleeson, who revelled in the responsibility of playing stand-off.
Gleeson's presence also served to bring out the best in Richard Myler, the 18-year-old Salford scrum-half who acquitted himself well at the end of a season in National League One.
The procession began with a fine solo effort from Purdham before Mickey Higham and Gleeson combined smartly through the middle for Shaun Briscoe to finish off.
A slick handling move involving Purdham and Ben Westwood paved the way for Sykes to score his first try; a 50-metre break by Calderwood enabled Gleeson to weave his way to the line; Purdham put Myler over for the first of the youngster's two tries; and Sykes added his second after Calderwood opened up Wales with a blistering run from a
20-metre restart.
Gleeson's second try kept the scoreboard ticking over and in the 38th minute Calderwood claimed a fine solo try which saw him outstrip the Welsh cover on a classy 75-metre run to the line for Purdham to land his fifth goal.
Wales did go close to breaking their duck in the early stages of the second half when Halifax winger Damian Gibson dived for the right corner but a solid cover tackle by Michael Shenton crashed him into the corner flag.
Before then England had carried on where they had left off with tries by Harlequins second row Tony Clubb from a pass by Gareth Hock, the Wigan forward who scored himself with an explosive burst to the line.
More intelligent play by Purdham carved open the gap which allowed Myler to score his second before another newcomer, Londoner Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook, marked his debut with a try from close range.
A second try from Briscoe, who raced away following good play by Hock and Myler, plus Purdham's ninth goal brought up the 70 points and prompted a purple patch from Wales which very nearly brought a try for Jordan James, only for video referee Ashley Klein to rule that he was offside when he crashed over from a high kick.
Wales's frustration was compounded by a 78th-minute try by Hull KR winger Fox which completed the scoring.
England: Briscoe (Hull KR); Fox (Hull KR), Shenton (Castleford), Sykes (Bradford), Calderwood (Wigan); Gleeson (Warrington), Myler (Salford); Fielden (Wigan), Higham (Wigan), McCarthy-Scarsbrook (Harlequins), Hock (Wigan), Westwood (Warrington), Purdham (Harlequins). Substitutes: Hodgson (Huddersfield), Langley (Bradford), Griffin (Wakefield), Clubb (Harlequins).
Wales: Halley (Bradford); Gibson (Halifax), A James (Crusaders), L Williams (Crusaders), R Williams (Crusaders); Lennon (Crusaders), Watson (Leigh); Kopczak (Bradford), Penkywicz (Halifax), Mills (Hull KR), Flower (CRusaders), Davies (Crusaders), Bracek (Warrington). Substitutes: Griffiths (Castleford), Barron (Gateshead), J James (Crusaders), Dudson (Crusaders).
Referee: S Ganson (England).
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