or an Auckland Select XIII.........

Tomkins looks like a 6 playing fullback nowadays. He just isn't dealing well enough with those high kicks but in fairness the rest of his game was outstanding. Some of his defensive work was exceptional. I'd have said get him in the halves but Widdop and especially Smith were very good with limited ball to work with. I thought those two were the difference today against two poor Samoan halfbacks.

All in all it's just good to get through with a win. Basic errors killed us at points but I'm very optimistically putting that down to rust! O'Loughlin and Whitehead should come in to the team next week.

I have said it before, GB should do a proper tour of the Pacific. Giving, Samoa, Tonga, PNG at full strength (which they probably would be if oz and NZ weren't playing) are all a stern test for us especially at home, and it would be the biggest thing to happen in the pac Isles for ages.

Surely it wouldn't be hard to convince the governments, tourist boards, airline and hotel companies of the benefits of sponsoring such a tour. It would be great entertainment and probably tie up the islands ad an rl stronghold for a generation

Really enjoyed that game. Plenty of passion from the Samoan's.
Matty Smith really took control in the 2nd half and his kicking game won us that game.
Really good debuts by the 9's and the props where outstanding as a unit with Chris Hill really impressing. Cut out early errors and improve our discipline and we will take on the Aussies and Kiwi's.

A great idea. Would be mutually beneficial.

It'd be great to see and it would be a great learning curve for a young England side.

Parts of his game is missing at 6 though as well. Tomkins is such a talent he needs to be on the field but we need to find where we can fit him in because whilst a natural talent he doesn't really fit into a position at the moment.

Matty Smith did nothing but kick the ball, a couple of cracking bombs but several straight to the defender. If he had a fraction of the creativity of Widdop we wouldn't have had to rely on kicks. You could bring Deacon out of the box to do what Smith did.
Overall the front row were excellent, back row very poor. Watkins the biggest waste of talent since Newlove. Hall MoM.
Tomkins to 6/7, Hardaker to FB.

Definitely.

Enjoyable game, the Samoan passion and intensity is fabulous, great set of fans as well.

If, and looking at that, it's a big if, we can cut out the basic errors, we'll go alright. Not saying we'll win the thing but we should be competitive.

I thought the centres both defended well, the halves showed a few nice touches, good kicking game from Smith and both hookers played to a plan. The pack stood up to the expected ferocity of the Samoans and whilst not wanting to jump on the bandwagon, I've got to agree with concerns at the amount of ball Tomkin's allows to bounce.

Decent'ish kicking game but Smith can't tackle for **** and the Aussies will target him all night.
Hardaker at FB and move Tomkins into the halves with Widdop,
Drop Joel Tomkins & Westerman and we might have a chance next week.

I think he's getting caught in two minds as to his own position at the moment. I think he went to the NRL with it in his mind that defences are so much tighter (which they are) so he's tried to become more of a creative force and he is. His defensive work is good as well but he's gone further backwards dealing with high kicks. I don't think it's a lack of bravery but more a lack of confidence in catching the balls in traffic (and sometimes in no traffic at all).

In terms of what he lacks at 6 I'd say it's possibly just a kicking game but he's actually pretty good when given the opportunity. He needs to develop it but he won't get the chance to do that at fullback.

Hall MoM, are you sure?!

George Burgess/Godinet/Leilua for MoM imo

I thought both Smith and Widdop were good - it was nice to see England with two halves who can kick a ball. As people have said, the front row played well, but the back row was sketchy. I thought Shenton looked vulnerable defensively; I'd consider trying Hardaker at left centre next week. Overall we gave ourselves too much work to do in hot conditions with all of those mistakes in the first half, and it showed later in the game. We showed some character to hang on, though.

Good hard test for first match of the tournament. All that tackling in the first 20 minutes definitely took its toll. Full back did some good work in defence but being able to catch a bomb must be a prerequisite for the position I would've thought. Not sure about MoM but will go for Hill despite "that" lapse!