When the Rugby League World Cup kicks off on Saturday (October 15) it will make those who care about the international game giddy with excitement. Not just because it has been delayed for a year but also because the international programme since the 2017 World Cup - even before Covid hit in early 2020 - has been almost as empty as a Ralph Rimmer apology.
Australia and New Zealand refused to travel to England for the World Cup 12 months ago so Shaun Wane’s side had to content themselves with just the one engagement for 2021. That was a 30-10 win over France in Perpignan in October. A mixture of Covid and the relaunch of the Great Britain brand for a tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in 2019 has meant that England have played only five matches since Josh Dugan tapped Kallum Watkins’ ankle and Wayne Bennett’s England fell six points short of becoming World Champions. Or since they became only the second team - after their own 1975 incarnation - to be nilled in a World Cup final. Funny thing, perspective.
Samoa have been similarly dormant since their 46-0 quarter-final defeat to Australia at the 2017 World Cup. They played just once in 2018 (a 38-22 defeat to Tonga) and twice in 2019 when they went down 44-6 to Fiji after beating Papua New Guinea 24-6.
The inactivity is about to cease as England finally get to open their own long awaited tournament against the 2022 version of Samoa at Newcastle’s St James’ Park. Many observers of the game - including this one - are more than a tad concerned about the task awaiting the home side. Samoa have brought with them a squad that is brimming with top NRL talent. The likes of Brian To’o, Stephen Crichton, Jarome Luai, Junior Paulo, Joseph Suaali’i and Oregon Kaufusi would grace any team. And if Hamiso Tabuai-Fedow - newly signed by Kristian Woolf’s Redcliffe Dolphins - gets in open space you can probably forget about anyone in England’s controversial white and blue catching him.
The threat from Samoa is real. If it transpires then it will not be the first time that they have given England all that they could handle over 80 minutes. We’re going back to the 2014 Four Nations to look at how a side featuring Joey Leilua, Mose Masoe, Ricky Leutele, Jesse Sene-Lefao, Josh McGuire and current Kiwi international Isaac Liu pushed England all the way in what was also a tournament opener.
It was a round-robin format with each of the teams playing each other once in Australia and New Zealand before the top two met in the final. This was England’s first competitive game since losing an epic World Cup semi-final to New Zealand at Wembley a year earlier. Shaun Johnson broke English hearts that day, and coach Steve McNamara came into this one with a virtually new pack.
Josh Hodgson had enjoyed a year with Hull KR that was good enough to see him recruited by Canberra Raiders. He replaced James Roby while Sam Burgess had agreed a switch to rugby union since the 2013 semi-final defeat. Brother George came into the starting line-up with his twin Tom on the bench. There was no Sean O’Loughlin so Joe Westerman started at 13. Castleford’s Daryl Clark had been named Man Of Steel after a superb year with the Tigers and he was handed an international debut off the bench.
The back division saw less change. Michael Shenton came in at centre for Leroy Cudjoe while Gareth Widdop’s halfback partner was not the now internationally retired Kevin Sinfield but former Saints lightning rod Matty Smith. These were strange times indeed. That left Sam Tomkins to continue at fullback with Ryan Hall and Josh Charnley on the wings with Watkins partnering Shenton in the centres.
After a tight opening it was Clark who provided the first real telling contribution. He took advantage of some dozy defending at marker to scythe through from just inside the Samoan half. As he was brought to ground he found Tigers team-mate Shenton on his inside with a free run to the line. It was the former Saint’s third and final try in what would prove to be the last match of his 10-game international career.
Shenton’s moment in the Brisbane sun had given England a lead which lasted only five minutes. Matt Parish’s side hit back when St George-Illawarra Dragons half Kyle Stanley found McGuire who handed on for Liu to crash over through the tackles of Tomkins and brother Joel. By this time Sam Tomkins was an NRL player too having swapped Wigan Warriors for their New Zealand namesakes at the end of the 2013 season. This was that bewildering era in history when Wigan players flitted between the DW Stadium and the NRL almost on a weekly basis. Even Joe Burgess - a man with frightening speed but also cursed with the turning circle of Royal Caribbean’s Symphony Of The Seas - managed to find employment at both South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters.
A few minutes later England were behind. Stanley was involved again, finding Featherstone’s finest Leilua on the right to allow him to hand on to one-time Salford man Daniel Vidot to squeeze over in the right corner despite the attentions of Charnley. Vidot played only 10 games for Salford in 2016 having joined from Brisbane Broncos. Red Devils fans saw him cross the try line six times in that short spell so it is clear that he had some pedigree as a whitewash botherer. A year after his spell at Salford he retired from rugby league to pursue a career in professional wrestling. If only he’d had the foresight to stick around a year or two more he would have seen rugby league turn into a grapple fest in any case.
Back in Brisbane there were six minutes left until the break when England crossed for their second try to retake the lead. Chris Hill charged to within a metre of the line before the ball was spread right via Clark, Smith and Sam Tomkins who gave Watkins a walk-in. Watkins is again involved with England eight years on from this encounter. Only now it is as a veteran Salford back rower. Back on this day he was a 23 year-old centre, perhaps the most devastating in Super League and about to play his part in the Leeds Rhinos domestic treble of 2015. This was his ninth cap. If selected by Wane this weekend he will win his 26th, and his first since that fateful ankle tap. It has been quite the renaissance for the Manchester-born star. And quite the Salfordian flavour to this 2014 clash with Parrish having briefly coached the club and Vidot’s brief stint.
A Widdop penalty stretched England’s lead to 14-10 before he played his part in pushing McNamara’s side even further in front. Five minutes into the second half he linked up with Smith to send Liam Farrell over on the left for England’s third try. Farrell is a key absentee for England’s class of 2022. He will miss out on the opportunity to play in his second World Cup with a knee injury. Here he was notching his first try for England in his third appearance as McNamara’s side opened up a 10-point advantage at 20-10.
Still the Samoan side would not go away. Only one of their 17 plied his trade in Super League and he was about to have a significant effect on proceedings. Peta Godinet played 45 games in two seasons with Wakefield Trinity, scoring 11 tries. He dragged Samoa back into the game when he went over from dummy half with 25 minutes remaining. He threw an outrageous dummy to his left, bamboozling Hill and the Tomkins’ brothers while opening up a huge gap to the line.
Godinet wasn’t done there. On the hour he repeated the trick. This time on the other side of the field down the England left. He zipped past Farrell and Shenton who were slow to react at marker. Godinet then lowered his shoulder and crashed over despite the attempts of Sam Tomkins, Clark and Hall to stop him. The try was converted and Samoa led going into the game’s final quarter. If you were in any doubt about whether England could slip up against a Samoan team then don’t be. This was getting perilously close and this current Samoan squad looks much stronger on paper.
The shock of going behind at that stage possibly stirred England. They restored their lead just three minutes later. Smith’s bomb sailed high into the Queensland sky where Shenton was first to it. He couldn’t gather it but was fortunate enough to see his touch travel backwards into the waiting arms of Joel Tomkins who had a simple task. The less celebrated of the Tomkins boys to play rugby league for England, Joel would only do so twice more before defecting to the other code. This was his only try for England rugby league and it put McNamara’s team in a tenuous sort of control at 26-22.
The argument was effectively settled in very similar circumstances by a different Tomkins brother. Smith again launched one into the atmosphere were it was flapped at by Samoa’s Wests Tigers fullback Tim Simona. Fortunately for England the ball hit Sam Tomkins on the chest, allowing him to pick it up after it ran loose and stretch over to score as Stanley literally tried to pull his pants down. Just over 10 minutes remained as Widdop’s conversion offered breathing space at 32-22.
Like the Monty Python knight - the one currently debasing himself on GB News - Samoa still wanted to fight. Two lucky tries by barmaid baiting Wigan siblings were a mere flesh wound. No sooner had Tomkins gone over than a cross-field kick was batted back by Frank Pritchard into the arms of Leutele. He found McGuire who spun a pass out to North Queensland Cowboys winger Antonio Winterstein to crash over in the left corner.
England clung on for a 32-26 win but it was their only victory of an otherwise frustrating campaign. McNamara’s side suffered narrow defeats to both Australia and New Zealand who ultimately met in the final. England went down 16-12 to a Kangaroos side featuring Warrington ambassador Greg Inglis and a certain Sione Mata’utia. The Saints back rower was playing one of his three Tests for Australia on the wing before he eventually represented Samoa at the 2017 World Cup.
Six days later New Zealand edged out England 16-14. Hall and Charnley scored tries in a losing cause as the Kiwis counted former Catalans Dragon Dean Whare, Hull KR talisman Shaun Kenny-Dowall and recent Wigan retiree Thomas Leuluai among their number. The Kiwis went on to claim the title, edging out Australia 22-18 in the final at Wellington. Mata’utia crossed for his only Kangaroo try but scores from Johnson, Manu Vatuvei and Jason Nightingale ensured that Stephen Kearney’s side collected their second title in five editions of the Four Nations, also winning in 2010.
Overall England and Samoa have met only three times competitively. The 2014 match-up was by far the closest so far, with England also winning 38-14 in 2006 and 30-10 at the 2017 World Cup. Something tells me this weekend’s encounter could yet be the most memorable and hard fought of all. Will there be a different outcome?
Relive the highlights of England’s last big clash with Samoa here.
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