Rugby League World Cup: England win over Samoa 'shut a few people up'

It doesn't get bigger than playing for your country, so to kick off the Rugby League World Cup with such a performance as England did against Samoa is really special.

There was a lot of pressure, lots of us were nervous coming into it, and it was a massive game.

Even so, it was probably the most enjoyable game I've had, maybe even more than Grand Finals where it's hard to enjoy in the moment because it's too close.

This was one where you could take it all in, take the atmosphere in while we were scoring tries. We just need to make sure we don't get too comfortable now.

We aren't getting carried away. It was a great day out for our families to be there too. Beating Samoa 60-6 was great, but we've got to focus on France and then Greece.

Hopefully there's also a bit of belief now and some positivity around the fans that we can do something special.

One thing that made it more special is the World Cup being in England, but more so it felt like everybody had written us off. All the talk beforehand was about how good Samoa were going to be.

There seemed to be a bit of negativity around, so it was fantastic for us to shut a few people up.

A lot of the boys were just happy to get out there. We've been waiting for a long time to play as a team, so to score 60 points... we couldn't have written that script.

We defended really, really well; they only scored an intercept try, which is pleasing. Young Jack Welsby had a great game and set up a couple of tries with those passes. They read one but we'll take that.

'We couldn't do anything wrong'

It was really physical out there - and we're obviously giving away a few kilos in every tackle, especially me and Jack as we're not the biggest of blokes. But we knew Samoa would be physical and they definitely did bring that.

I thought I played pretty well, but we talked about the toughness of the game and our middles - the big forwards - laid that platform at the start of the match.

We've got some quality backs like Dom Young - you saw how he scored his try by beating his man for pace. We've got plenty of athletes so it's pretty easy for me: I just pick a pass or make a kick and we've got somebody on the end of it every time.

It was one of those games where everything we did kind of worked, especially at the back end. There was a point where we said as a team: 'Let's kick it long and get a defensive set because we've not had one for 10-15 minutes.' Sam Tomkins went and kicked a 40-20 to put us on the attack again instead.

We couldn't do anything wrong - it was one of those games - and it was good to see big Tom Burgess get over for a try at the end to make it 60.

Guilt-free refuelling

Coach Shaun Wane said we could have a couple of beers together afterwards, so as a squad we went out and had a meal. We enjoy each other's company.

The restaurant put out some chicken, chips, starters, pate - loads of dishes - and everyone picked at that.

I was one of the greediest. It wasn't too healthy a spread but we'd earned a bit of a treat.

During the game I lost about three kilograms. It's pretty normal to lose a couple so I was able to pile it back on. Most lads are similar to that following a game at this level.

Now it's time to get back into camp. We were supposed to come in on Monday but Waney gave us an extra night to see our families and then report on the Tuesday morning.

We're training at Wigan, which is good for me - it's just round the corner - as I can just roll down the hill. Train Tuesday and Wednesday, have a day at home and then in camp from Friday through to Sunday.

Family reunion

My dad is back in England for the World Cup. He was a big part of my rugby league when I was younger and he still loves it, so it will be nice to have him over.

He's not seen me play for a while, so it's good to have him at games and being around to see him as he lives in Australia.

It's not far from summer over there so he's come home to the cold. He's from Wigan. He needs to remember that because he thinks he's an Aussie now.

His plan is to be here as long as we're still in the tournament, so hopefully he's got a few more weeks yet.

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