England feast on weak Wales

England warmed up for the Gillette Four Nations Series with a comfortable 48-12 victory over a valiant Wales side in Bridgend.

Sam Tomkins was the star of the show, scoring a hat-trick of tries and having a hand in several others as Tony Smith's team ran out comfortable winners.

Tom Briscoe also bagged a brace on his international debut, the winger one of a handful of fresh faces in a team minus those players who featured in the Super League Grand Final a week ago.

However the final score did not do the Welsh justice, as their understrength team battled bravely before wilting in the final 20 minutes.

Proud

New coach Iestyn Harris, who this week joined Brian Noble's backroom staff at the Celtic Crusaders, will be proud of his makeshift squad ahead of their rugbyleague.com European Cup campaign.

Without 11 of the original squad and with seven players on debut, Wales even managed to take the lead when Craig Kopczak barged his way over.

The try came after Paul Sykes couldn't deal with a harmless long kick - one of the first of a number of errors by a rusty-looking England.

However Wales were just as generous, full-back Elliot Kear spilling the ball on his own line to allow Tomkins to stroll over for his first of the night.

His second soon followed, the Wigan youngster showing just why he was named Super League's yougn player of the year with a superb step off his left foot to get through the defensive line before running around last man Kear.

The scorer turned provider to set up Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook from close range and it was also his grubber that was fumbled to allow Sam Burgess to extend England's lead with the simplest of scores.

Wales did manage to finish the first half on top - Lloyd White's penalty making it 20-6 - and they then went on to score the first try after the break.

Ian Watson caught the visiting defence cold from a penalty with a quick tap allowing him to scoot over untouched, the conversion cutting the gap to eight.

From then on, though, England's superior quality saw them pull away, with 28 points being scored in the final 22 minutes at Brewery Field.

Briscoe brace

Briscoe, who endured an injury-ravaged season with Hull, helped himself to a brace, his first seeing him finish the move of the match in the left corner after the ball had travelled through plenty of pairs of hands to create space out wide.

Sean O'Loughlin managed to get on the end of a Tomkins grubber to get his name on the scoresheet while Adrian Morley - captain for the night - forced his way over the line as Wales' defensive line cracked under heavy pressure.

A second for Briscoe followed and there was still time for Tomkins to complete his hat-trick thanks to an offload from the outstanding Burgess.

Sykes landed his sixth conversion to round out the scoring, England falling just short of a half-century in a fixture that they had won 74-0 12 months ago.

The score did not matter as much as the performance to Smith, who will have plenty to ponder over team selection ahead of the opening fixture of the Four Nations against France next Friday in Doncaster.