Sam Tomkins scored a tournament record-equalling four tries but England made an unconvincing start to their Gillette Four Nations campaign against Wales at the Leigh Sports Village.
The Wigan full-back sparkled on a gloomy afternoon to light up an otherwise drab display which will do little to inspire hopes of a victory over Australia at Wembley in England's next match.
Tomkins, Super League's leading tryscorer in 2011, does not do things in half measures.
He scored a hat-trick on his debut against Wales in Bridgend two years ago, grabbed four tries against France last season and on his 10th appearance today gave England a dream start with two touchdowns in the first 15 minutes.
It was all too easy for England against a side containing eight part-timers but coach Steve McNamara will be looking for a big improvement when they take on the Kangaroos next Saturday.
The game began disastrously for Wales, with experienced forward Jordan James knocked out cold in the first tackle of the match by England second rower Ben Westwood.
It robbed coach Iestyn Harris of a key man and severely reduced his interchange options, which proved decisive as the Welsh naturally faded towards the end.
England got possession from that opening tackle and duly opened the scoring when Tomkins took Chase's pass to cross for his first try.
When the Wigan favourite took a pass from Sinfield to slice through the Welsh defence for a second on 15 minutes, it look routine for McNamara's team.
But, inspired by captain Lee Briers, the Welsh played with spirit to keep England in check and test their defence.
The veteran stand-off gave his side a perfect attacking position with a 40-20 kick and replacement forward Craig Kopczak came up with a clean break but Wales lacked the composure and class to make the pressure pay.
Their best scoring opportunity came through Warrington winger Rhys Williams, one of eight Super League players in the side, but Ryan Hall showed his defensive mettle to bundle him into touch.
England extended their lead to 14-0 by half-time when half-backs Rangi Chase and Kevin Sinfield produced some delightful passes to get centre Kirk Yeaman over for a try try but the 10,377 crowd had to wait another 28 minutes for the next score.
Second rower Gareth Ellis began punching holes through the heart of the Welsh defence and it was from his clean break that Tomkins completed his hat-trick on 49 minutes, which secured him the man-of-the-match award.
Reed then took Westwood's pass to storm over for his second try in as many matches and Tomkins grabbed his fourth after Briers' speculative drop-out failed to go the required 10 metres.
Wales never gave up and gained some consolation on 66 minutes when winger Elliott Kear made full use of an overlap to score at the corner.
McNamara took the opportunity to rest hooker James Roby and in his absence Gareth Widdop produced an impressive cameo performance, breaking clear to get loose forward Chris Heighington over for his first try before scoring England's eighth try from from Hall's interception.
Sinfield kicked his fifth goal from eight attempts to wrap up the scoring.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
Four Nations: England 42 Wales 4
October 29, 2011
Comments
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Absolutely no point to this match whatsover. It will have no influence over the outcome of the tournament. It was just another warm up match for England.
There have been articles and comments made on this website for the re introduction of a GB Team.
I think that the majority of RL fans in this country would agree that the GB Team would be made up of the England team today + others.
So given that Wales would be one of the nations contributing to the GB Team, what players playing today for Wales would force their way into the GB Team ?
Only one player had class in that team, Lee Briers, and he is too old and at the end of his career to take on the Aussies. The Wales team is a token gesture to RL in this country. A 35 year old substitute who is the assistant coach at Swinton came on, whats the point ?
Name a Scottish player, I'm not aware of a Northern Ireland RL player, and as far as I'm concerned Ireland is not part of Great Britain.
Gone are the days of the Jonathan Davies, Alan Tait, John Devereux etc
Nice to see the fans applaud rather than boo Sam Tomkins, but all he did was show RU how good he is.
We need to produce more young players, who want to play and stay in RL.
We need to send all our best players to the NRL if we are serious about ever competing with the Aussies. The Super League, and rugby league culture in this country, will continue to produce pathetic England or Great Britain teams until their is radical change. And McNamara was not good enough for Bradford, let alone the national side.
IMO the England playing strip was pathetic, the jersey looking like something you might buy on your hols as a wear-during-the-day T shirt. What it most definitely did NOT look like was an ultra smart rugby league jersey to represent your country in. Instead of the "trendy" sloppy, red cross at a daft angle, why didn't the white jersey simply have a smart and prominent red V like the St. Helens jerseys in earlier times? But then again, I'm a RL follower from the "old days" when players' strips would so dazzle us with their smartness that they looked as if they had already won before they had even kicked off. But of course, to utter such words or sentiments these days has become highly unfashionable and no doubt many reading my views will vent their modernistic ire in response, when, they have never even seen what teams used to look like in the "good old days". The Welsh strip, although not a classic by any means, was far easier on the eye in the smartness category, i.e. nice plain red jersey with an attempt at a passable white V.
P.S. And NB, I use the term “jersey” and NOT “shirt” which is a football term. Rugby (league and union) players play in JERSEYS, footballers play in shirts.
Super League vs CC1 basically! NO CONTEST! Expect a BIG smashing by the mighty Roos!
My comment is not from a super league era only fan. I have supported Salford since 1967. I went to Wembley in 1969 and saw the great Salford side in the mid 70's home and away. So 'Bring back Great Britain Rugby League', get your facts right before you utter such tripe in future. This game of ours is the greatest game of all. We should all be getting behind England this Saturday. Not complaining about the blooming shirts that they are wearing!!