FLYING START!
England fancy World Cup chances as it goes without a hitch on pitch
AFTER an opening ceremony to forget, England’s players put on a show to remember. This rescheduled Rugby League World Cup started in farcical fashion when the sound cut out midway through the ‘tournament welcome’. But if the pre-match proceedings were a spectacular failure, the home side were spectacular when the game finally got under way.
It is amazing to think but Samoa, who had six players from NRL champions Penrith Panthers, were the bookies’ favourites. Shaun Wane’s men made a mockery of that, running in 10 tries and kickstarting their campaign in stunning style in front of 43,199 fans.
Dom Young and Elliott Whitehead both scored two tries and Tommy Makinson registered 24 points, but every England player put in a performance worthy of the occasion.
After this statement win, the odds on the hosts becoming the first British side to win the World Cup in 50 years have been slashed.
England now look to have a clear run to the last four — and they cannot face favourites Australia or New Zealand until the final.
If, as expected, they beat France next week and then minnows Greece, England are likely to avoid dangerous Tonga too in the quarterfinals and face Papua New Guinea.
No wonder skipper Sam Tomkins is urging the nation to get behind his side. ‘Hopefully today has given everybody a bit more appetite to get behind us,’ said the full-back.
‘We’ve proved today what we can do. If people were unsure whether to buy a ticket, go and get your ticket and get behind us because we’ve got a great group here. If we were to do something special we could inspire the next generation of players.’
Such positivity was perhaps in shorter supply before kick-off given the way the opening ceremony went. Just after the PA system announced the names of legends Kevin Sinfield and Jason Robinson to walk out with the trophy, the sound in the stadium went dead.
It restarted, but a group of kids were forced to dance without music and the Kaiser Chiefs unable to perform their second song, with kick-off pushed back 10 minutes.
‘We’d like to sincerely apologise for the disrupted tournament welcome, which was severely affected by technical failure,’ said the organisers in a statement. ‘It wasn’t the start we wanted.’
Well, at least England got the start they wanted. After dominating the first quarter with just a Makinson penalty to show for it, Jack Welsby ran clear for the first try of the World Cup on his Test debut after George Williams broke brilliantly.
Just three minutes later, Welsby turned provider, finding Young on the right wing, who cut inside, skipped a tackle and then powered over the line. The duo combined for another superb try, as Welsby again passed to Young out wide and the flying 6ft 7in winger finished strongly in the corner to give England an 18-0 lead. Samoa cut that deficit before half-time, when Welsby attempted one pass too many and Izack Tago intercepted to run from inside his own half and score. But the home side restored their advantage after the break, as they outnumbered Samoa on the short side and Mike McMeeken played in Kallum Watkins to run under the posts.
If things were not hard enough for Matt Parish’s side, they had Anthony Milford sent to the sin bin for a late tackle on Tomkins. And from then on England ran riot — scoring a barely believable six tries in the last 15 minutes. Herbie Farnworth — who was once on the books of Manchester United — picked up a bouncing ball to go over at the home of Newcastle United.
Then Whitehead registered two tries in as many minutes, powering over his first after England turned down an easy kick at the posts, then finishing off after Makinson ran clear down the left wing.
Next up, Makinson grounded in the corner after a clever kick through by Williams, who scored himself from another Welsby pass. And then Tom Burgess bulldozed over for England’s tenth try.
‘Nobody gave us a chance to win, but within our group, we knew what we could do,’ said England coach Wane. ‘I never expected that sort of scoreline and I’m really happy — but we can still improve.’