Tomkins inspires England romp

Sam Tomkins scored four first-half tries as England crushed France 60-6 in new coach Steve McNamara's first game in charge.

France had not beaten England since 1981 and that 29-year run never looked likely to come to an end.

Bobbie Goulding's side put up a spirited display in the Leigh sunshine, but England always looked to have too much power up the middle and pace out wide. As so often before in these cross-Channel contests, the only real question was how many tries England could score.

The answer was 11, which was just about an accurate reflection of the match.

England started fast and were ahead inside two minutes, Kevin Brown and Sam Burgess combining on the right to send Gareth Widdop sprinting clear for a try just seconds into his international career.

The French defence were immediately struggling with England's pace and movement and Tom Briscoe was soon in at the corner, with Kevin Sinfield landing his second conversion from out wide for a 12-0 lead.

France's defence stiffened and it was 10 minutes before England crossed for their third try, Widdop showing some fancy footwork to split the defence before Bridge put Sam Tomkins in under the sticks.

But England's precision fell away after Sinfield's third conversion, with a number of passes going astray.

France got back into the match - at least on the scoreboard - after 19 minutes. Jamie Peacock was penalised for interference to give the French decent field position and after the forwards had driven the ball to within five metres of the posts, Remy Casty's neat offload set up a score for Andrew Bentley.

Quickfire

It was up to Sam Tomkins to lift England once again and he did so with three quickfire scores before the break.

He squirmed his way over from close range on the half hour mark and moments later another flowing move saw the Wigan half cross in the corner.

But the best try of the match came on the stroke of half time. On the fifth tackle Tomkins chipped over the advancing defence, the ball was caught by Widdop, who chipped on in his turn for the on-rushing Tomkins to collect and score. Widdop slotted the conversion and England led 34-6 at the half.

It took England 15 minutes of the second half to cross for their seventh try as France showed admirable battling qualities.

It took a typically powerful run from Adrian Morley to open up the space for Sam Tomkins to throw the dummy and set up Michael Shenton for his first England try.

Floodgates

Until 12 minutes from time France were keeping the scoreboard respectable but as so often happens, it took a sin-binning to force the floodgates open.

Chris Bridge was set to score when Constant Villegas stuck out a leg to bring him down and in the 10 minutes of Villegas' absence England ran in 22 points.

Tomkins set up Gareth Ellis to spin over for a try from the subsequent tap penalty, before Sinfield and James Roby showed great speed and handling to give Bridge the try that should have been his moments before.

With four minutes left and the French defence tiring desperately, Ellis powered over for his second try and there was still time for Shenton to get over for his second and England's 11th.

Tougher tests await for McNamara's side in the autumn, but this was a decent enough beginning.