England were able to overcome the loss of Victor Radley as they rolled Greece 94-4, with Dom Young scoring four tries and equalling an English record.
It took just a couple of minutes for England to score as Matty Lees ran a nice line, found the gap and scored the opening try.
The first of Dom Young’s try came on the back of a basketball pass from the inside and Young dived over to score.
Greece would score a surprise try next as Siteni Taukamo spotted a gap, hit the speed, and strolled over to score.
Young had his second try on the back of a looping pass from George Williams, with the hulking winger casually jogging over and diving to score.
A smart kick from Marc Sneyd found open space and Ryan Hall won the race and barged his way over.
Williams then showed some deft skills with the pass as he found a rampaging Thomas Burgess to score his first try from close range.
Some quick hands down the right saw Young grab a first-half hat trick as he backed himself and powered over to score.
The English side were not done in the first half as Kai Pearce-Paul broke down the right and found Young on his outside to score a first-half quadruple.
The final play of the first half then saw England break through the middle and it was Williams who had enough pace to score.
Sneyd’s grubber saw everyone chasing it, an airswing by Greece and Tommy Makinson happened to have the bounce into his lap for a try.
John Bateman made a break and Sneyd was able to nab a try of his own, backing up on the inside.
Sneyd then turned provider once again as Burgess ran a hard, fast line, and powered over from close range.
Sneyd produced a ripper of a pass for Ryan Hall out wide who had his man beaten all ends up.
Class galore saw the English run rings around the Greek right side defence as Joe Batchelor then scored on debut.
Andy Ackers nabbed the first of his two tries with a dummy-half run that caught the Greek defence off-guard.
Some adlib footy, perhaps even stagnated in the eyes of some, still saw England score as Williams found Pearce-Paul to score.
Greedy for more points, another English raid down the left and the ball went through several hands before finding its way to Ackers for a second.
Young was eager for a fifth but a good cover tackle forced him to offload back inside were Mike McMeeken scored the last English try.
England coach Shaun Wane praised the effort of all his players and he knows who his best seventeen are.
“Everybody has put their hands up and played,” Wane said.
“Next week it’ll be 17 players who can get us a win in the quarter-finals. Today was a really good win.”
Greek coach Steve Georgallis is proud of his players and wants them to head home with their head held up high.
“It shows the effort the team has put in,” Georgallis said.
“Those domestic players can go back home and can say I represented my country at rugby league,”
NRL News Player of the Game
3. Marc Sneyd (ENG)
2. Thomas Burgess (ENG)
1. George Williams (ENG)
