England warmed up for next weekend’s clash against the Wallabies with a 28-9 victory over Samoa at Twickenham on Saturday.

Five-eighth George Ford impressed in his first Test start with the Bath No.10 kicking five out of seven goals for a haul of 13 points.

More significantly, Ford was also instrumental in creating two of England’s three tries, with wing Jonny May scoring twice.

Successive defeats by the All Blacks (24-21) and the Springboks (31-28) had turned this match into a ‘must-win’ fixture for 2015 World Cup hosts England, who kicked off on a run of five straight losses, albeit four had been against world champions New Zealand.

“It feels good to get a win and it has been a long time,” England coach Stuart Lancaster told Sky Sports.

Ford added: “There was some OK stuff from me out there today, but there’s a lot I need to improve on still.”

Samoa had called off a threatened strike in protest at the conduct of the Samoa Rugby Union, which would have seen them boycott this match, only after being told they risked losing their place at next year’s World Cup.

The Pacific Islanders, still yet to beat England, scored all their points courtesy of three penalties from fly-half Tusi Pisi.

Lancaster made five changes and a positional switch to the team beaten 31-28 by South Africa last weekend, calling up Ford, whose previous four caps had come from off the bench, and moving the No.10s old school friend and former youth rugby colleague Owen Farrell from five-eighth to inside centre.

Pisi kicked Samoa into an early lead but missed a routine penalty before Ford equalised for England, playing in unfamiliar red shirts, in the 16th minute.

England face Australia at Twickenham next Saturday.