England 34 Samoa 18: Coach Shaun Wane demands more despite avenging heartbreaking loss

Captain George Williams led by example as his side’s six-try showing sank Samoa 34-18.

The Warrington star set up the first two scores and grabbed one of his own in a dominant first-half display that helped put lingering memories of England’s heartbreaking World Cup semi-final loss to the Samoans in 2022 to bed.

A double from Dean Ashton helped do the damage while Herbie Farnworth, Victor Radley and Mikey Lewis also scored, with Harry Smith contributing 10 points with the boot.

Samoa made much more of a game of it after the break, but the manner of the win was just what Wane ordered from a 17-man squad that featured nine players who had been involved in that fateful day at the Emirates Stadium, when Stephen Crichton’s golden-point drop goal shattered home hopes of reaching a home World Cup final. Despite the relatively comfortable margin of victory, Wane insisted it was not the kind of display that would trouble the international big guns.

“To be honest, we need to be better than that,” he said. “That performance wouldn’t trouble Australia. We know what we need to fix as a group.

“I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way to Samoa but we need to be better.

“I’m very pleased to win a test match against a good team but there’s things that need to improve, and we will improve for next week.

“They are things we can easily fix but it’s something that we’re in control of.”

Wane added: “I think a lot of good things worked for us in the first half and then we went away a bit in the second quarter, but they’re a team who have some good individuals and they’ve got so much talent in there.”

If the crowd of 15,137 had turned up expecting similar drama to the World Cup semi-final, they were swiftly disabused by an efficient start from the hosts, who took advantage of their opponents’ constant series of infringements in the ruck.

In fact, the most explosive moment of the opening stages occurred prior to kick-off when England squared up to Samoa’s traditional Siva Tau, with Man of Steel Lewis briefly clashing heads with Samoan interchange Gordon Chan Kum Tong.

The excellent Williams created the opening score with just seven minutes on the clock when his flashy tip pass to Farnworth sent the Dolphins centre over the line with a neat side step.

After Smith duly delivered the conversion, England went further ahead in the 15th minute with Williams again the provider, this time feeding the crucial pass to his Warrington club-mate Ashton to cut inside and dive through a gap for the second.

Samoa’s woes were highlighted in England’s third in the 20th minute, when Harry Newman’s neat ball gave Williams the chance to get on the scoresheet himself after easily shrugging off the sluggish challenge of John Asiata.

Hampered by repeated infringements in the ruck, Samoa could summon no momentum whatsoever, and were lucky to get on the scoresheet in the 33rd minute when the otherwise excellent Daryl Clark delivered a loose ball into the arms of Deine Mariner who scampered clear.

Samoa improved noticeably after the interval, but could do nothing to prevent the hosts extending their lead in the 49th minute when the superb Farnworth bulled through the Samoa defence and fed fellow NRL star Radley to stretch the lead, bolstered by another Smith conversion, to make the score 22-6.

Glimpses of the tourists’ undoubted talent were slow in coming but captain Jarome Luai offered a timely reminder three minutes later when he cleverly set up Mariner to go over on the diagonal for his second.

Pauga kicked to reduce the deficit to 10 before late efforts from Matty Ashton and Lewis – a late substitute for Clark and employed in an unfamiliar role at hooker – eased England home with something to spare.

Chan Kum Tong had the final say in the match as he held off Ashton to cross for Samoa’s second try, before a much more competitive second period ended in a sustained period of pushing and shoving after an initial clash between Matty Lees and his Samoan counterpart Terrell May.

“It’s just something we’ve done over the last few years, standing on that halfway line and fronting up,” said Williams of the pre-match flashpoint.

“We see that as our territory and to come over at the start of the game, it makes for a good mentality.

“It was just a stand-off, and a good mindset for us to start, I think.”