Dom Young scored four first-half tries as England overcame a slow start to batter Greece 94-4 and secure their spot in the quarter-finals of the Rugby League World Cup as Group A winners.
Shaun Wane’s side scored 17 tries in total, including eight in what had initially been a scrappy first half as they went on to dominate for the final 55 minutes of the encounter.
Besides Young’s efforts there were two scores each for Ryan Hall, Andy Ackers and Tom Burgess, while Marc Sneyd notched up 30 points with a try and 13 goals and had a hand in six more tries.
Matty Lees was left in acres of space to crash over for the first try after Sneyd attacked the line, and Young was soon in for his opener from John Bateman’s basketball pass.
But England’s early sloppiness was punished as Greece got over for a try of their own, Siteni Taukamo crossing in the corner after Kai Pearce-Paul had jumped out of the line to give the full-back space to run.
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England seemed stunned but they eventually grabbed a third when Young crossed from a George Williams pass. That began a spell of six tries in 15 minutes as the hosts put their foot down.
Hall chased a Sneyd kick and bundled past two tacklers to score, then Burgess took Williams’ inside ball to crash over by the sticks.
Young made it 32-4 when barrelling through two defenders to dot down, then had a fourth when he took Pearce-Paul’s pass after a break from distance. Williams then followed Chris Hill’s break to dance home from 50 yards to make it 44-4 by the interval.
They were soon back on the scoresheet after the break, Tommy Makinson falling on the ball after Greece had made a hash of fielding Sneyd’s chip over the top. The provider then became the scorer, finishing off a length-of-the-field move. Williams carried the ball out of defence and was tackled on halfway, but from the play-the-ball Bateman drove through a gap and handed off for Sneyd to finish.
Burgess then had a second when Sneyd’s delayed pass opened the way for him to walk in and take England past 60. Then the half-back delivered his best moment of the game, slinging a great cut-out pass beyond two England attackers to give Hall a walk-in try.
Joe Batchelor got in on the action to finish off a sweeping right-to-left move which included a great shoulder swerve from Morgan Knowles, and Andy Ackers went over after going from dummy half and faking a pass on his way to the line.
Pearce-Paul made it 82-4 with a try after Williams had stood off the Greece defence, then Ackers grabbed a second to finish off a great team move. Mike McMeeken became the 11th England player to cross when taking Young’s pass to finish, but a shot at a century was foiled when Knowles was caught offside from Sneyd’s kick in the build-up to him crossing.
England's massive win sees them head to the DW Stadium next Saturday to play the runners-up of Group D - likely Papua New Guinea - while Greece are the first team officially eliminated from the World Cup.
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