Rugby League World Cup: Sam Tomkins backs England to beat 'strongest-ever Samoa'

England captain Sam Tomkins has backed his side to start with a "big win" as they face the "best-ever" Samoa side in their World Cup opener on Saturday.

England and Samoa are hotly tipped to be the two sides to make it through to the quarter-finals from Group A, with France and Greece to bow out at the group stages, but many feel that who tops the group will be decided in the opening clash.

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Samoa, like Tonga, have been strengthened with players who were expected to play for tier one nations, including eight NRL Grand Finalists and with such star talent on show, Tomkins believes that this has to be the best-ever Samoan "ever assembled".

"They are a massive threat. They are the strongest Samoan side they have ever assembled," Tomkins said.

"There are a lot of NRL Grand Finalists in the group which everyone keeps telling me about.

"They are a strong group but so are we, it is a pretty evenly-matched game and we want to start with a bang in this competition.

"You don't get opportunities to build momentum because it is so fast in the competition so we are going to go out there and put our best foot forward and start with a big win.

"We all know the importance of that first game, it makes your quarter-final a lot easier if you can win that first one so we all understand that.

"Regardless of that, it is about how we can play and hopefully after the game on Saturday everyone will have an idea of how England are going to be."

'We are underdogs but we can win it' | 'England were impressive against Fiji'

England flexed their muscles ahead of the Rugby League World Cup with a 50-0 rout of Fiji in their warm-up clash.

There were nine different try-scorers as Shaun Wane's men comfortably avoided a repeat of the shock 15-14 defeat to Italy at the AJ Bell Stadium in the build-up to the last World Cup on home soil in 2013 and many young stars impressed their captain.

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"I was really impressed with how the boys went," Tomkins added.

"We had a real dig in some terrible conditions and to score 50 points shows the talent that we have got in the group.

"I thought Jack Welsby, George Williams, Dom Young were all outstanding in slippery conditions.

"Fiji weren't great and didn't give us a huge amount of threats but we had to go out there and play tough for the first 20 minutes and we certainly did that.

"I thought Victor (Radley) was really good. He is one of those players, you know what you are going to get from him.

"He is consistent and I think he will be a huge asset for us in this competition."

While their warm-up victory will give England a huge boost of confidence, Tomkins knows they will have a lot of work to do as "underdogs" over the next few weeks.

"We are underdogs in this competition. New Zealand and Australia are out there then there is probably us, Tonga and Samoa that are second to those guys and the underdog tag isn't something that we shy away from," he said.

"It means we have got nothing to lose, and there will be no team and no country more passionate than us and nobody trying any harder than us so we have got to go out there and do our best and I truly believe that this group can win it, absolutely."

Parish: Samoa will be underprepared for World up opener

With Tomkins talking up the strength of Samoa, their coach Matt Parish admits his team will be under-prepared for their opening World Cup game against England.

England coach Shaun Wane has labelled the Pacific Islanders favourites for the game at St James' Park and the bookmakers agree, but Parish insists the odds are stacked against his side and says he is more concerned with the finish than the start of the tournament.

"The one on the 19th of November is probably a bit more important than this one but they're all important, they're World Cup games," Parish said at the launch of the tournament at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

"I'm confident we're going to get better as the competition goes on."

While Wane has had contact with the bulk of his squad throughout the year and has had the benefit of two warm-up games, one against Fiji only last Friday, Parish says his squad has only just come together.

"We're under-done for the first game," he said. "England played a trial match while our boys were all on a plane.

"We had our first session this morning with our squad, we'll have two more sessions this week and then we've got to play the opening World Cup game.

"I've no doubt we will play well."

"We had our first session this morning and they trained well.

"We need to get some connection with our team and find some continuity, from that point of view we're a bit rusty but our goal is to peak further down the tournament, not on Saturday."