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England have warmed up for their opener against Samoa in style, defeating Fiji 50-0 in Salford on a night where Dom Young made headlines for all the right reasons.
The Newcastle winger had – through no fault of his own – dominated the news cycle for the 24 hours previous as an England sponsors video went viral in which head coach Shaun Wane appeared to agree with a racist assertion from the host, veteran broadcaster Eddie Hemmings, that the Jamaica-eligible Young was ‘not as English’ as his teammate, Herbie Farnworth.
It was far from the ideal preparation for his international debut, but once on the park, Young dominated an understrength Fiji. He scored early and set up two other tries, one a spectacular offload and another a long range break, both of which saw stand-in captain George Williams get the score.
Farnworth also made his England bow, with Bulldogs forward Luke Thompson scoring his first try at international level. Victor Radley made his first appearance for England and marked it with a typical bone-crunching hit early on.
Both sides were missing their Grand Finalists, with no St Helens or Leeds players for England and none from Penrith or Parramatta for the Bati.
The week of rivalry between the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels is well and truly over – as their players united to travel together to the World Cup.
The Samoan stars linked up at Sydney Airport for the long flight to England, with Junior Paulo from Parra and Jarome Luai, Spencer Leniu, Taylan May and Stephen Crichton forming the Penrith contingent.
Samoa travelled to the UK last week and have been based in Doncaster, just north of Sheffield, but those who featured in the Grand Final last Sunday were given dispensation to stay behind to celebrate before making the journey.
Jamaica went down 28-12 to a Cumbrian select XIII in their final warm-up match before next Sunday’s clash with Ireland at Headingley Stadium.
James Woodburn-Hall and AJ Wallace got the tries for the Reggae Warriors, who ran into a strong Cumbrian side stacked with Super League talent.
It was the first hit out for Jamaica since their squad assembled last week, and saw domestic-based players such as Khamisi McKain and Ronaldo Wade get valuable game time.
Cumbria haven’t featured as a rep side since 2011, but had veterans such as Brad Singleton and Kyle Amor – both of whom played multiple World Cups for Ireland – in their ranks and proved too strong in the end.
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