Kevin Sinfield produced a virtuoso first-half display for England as they cruised past the Exiles 30-10 in the UK Super League’s International Origin clash in Warrington.
England needed a good performance ahead of the World Cup on home soil later this year, and they showed they meant business by leading 24-0 at halftime.
Captain Sinfield was at the heart of things, slotting four goals from four and creating a try, but after he came off at halftime the Exiles fought back well through tries from Mickey Paea and Joel Monaghan.
Paea barged his way over, Pat Richards added the extras and it appeared to spark the Exiles into life.
It was some great work from Steve Menzies that put Monaghan over in the corner, but Richards missed the conversion to leave the score at 24-10 with 20 minutes remaining.
The Exiles were not able to maintain the momentum and even gifted England the final score as Harrison Hansen had a pass intercepted by Leroy Cudjoe, who scored his second try.
England, who lost two of the previous three games against the Exiles, broke the deadlock in the 20th minute after an initial break from James Roby gave the home side field position.
The ball was then spread and Sam Tomkins spotted there was no cover, kicking through for Zak Hardaker to dot down. Sinfield added the goal to make the score 6-0.
They added to their lead four minutes later thanks to a brilliant tackle from Cudjoe on Brett Hodgson.
A huge tackle on the former Wests Tiger caused him to lose the ball, Sinfield flipping it to James Roby to sprint almost the length of the pitch despite the desperate tracking back of Michael Dobson.
Sinfield’s simple conversion made it 12-0.
And Cudjoe was at it again on 28 minutes with some help from Richie Myler to extend the English lead.
Gareth Ellis made a half-break before finding Myler on the run-around and he put Cudjoe away.
The Huddersfield Giants winger then sold the dummy to ghost past Hodgson and score the try, with Sinfield again on target with the extra two.
England were in total control, and Sinfield, having moved to dummy-half, waltzed through a huge gap to open the Exiles up once more before finding Tomkins, who was never going to be caught.
Sinfield slotted the extra points for an ominous 24-0 lead with four minutes still to go in the half.