Five Saints starred as England ran in an incredible 17 tries to crush debutants Greece 94-4 - their biggest victory in a World Cup match.
Joe Batchelor grabbed a try on his England test debut whilst Matty Lees also scored his first try for his country. Tommy Makinson also got in on the act, playing at full back whilst Jack Welsby and Morgan Knowles both played key roles.
A ๐๐๐๐ช๐ฉ try for Joe Batchelor! ๐
A part-time waiter during the last World Cup ๐ฝ๏ธ
He's serves up England's 13th (thirteenth!) score of the afternoon.
๐บ Watch live on @BBCiPlayer & @BBCOne
๐ฒ Updates on @BBCSport app | ๐ป Comms on 5 Sports Extra#BBCRL | #RLWC2021 pic.twitter.com/xFfjHUPdXe
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 29, 2022
England topped the group andย will face the runner-up of Group D in Wigan next Saturday (kick-off 14:30 GMT) in the quarter-finals.
Tonga are currently top but Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands and Wales all have a mathematic possibility of reaching the knockout stages.
England maintained their flawless record in the tournament but this was an utterly ruthless performance in attack, with every surge up front seemingly ending in a try.
The scoreline with 11 different try scorers was the second highest recorded in the history of the tournament, only behind Australia’s 110-4 rout of Russia in 2000.
England have now won eight of their past nine internationals, a 34-0 loss to New Zealand in 2018 the only blemish, while they last lost to a team other than Australia or New Zealand at a World Cup back in 1975, when beaten by Wales.
Newcastle Knights winger Dom Young spoke before the tournament about wanting to “prove a point” in England after leaving Huddersfield in 2019 because of a lack of first-team opportunities.
And the 21-year-old was at the heart of England’s merciless finishing with another breathtaking display, taking his tally to eight in the tournament, the most of any player and just four short of the record set by Australia’s Valentine Holmes in 2017.
All of Young’s tries at Bramall Lane came in the opening 40 minutes, with St Helens forward Lees also running through unchallenged, Hall bustling over, Burgess barging in and the excellent Williams converting.
A quick start from the hosts! โกโฑ
Matty Lees wastes no time to score his first England try for an early lead against Greece inside three minutes ๐
๐บ Watch live on @BBCiPlayer & @BBCOne
๐ฒ Updates on @BBCSport app | ๐ป Comms on 5 Sports Extra#BBCRL | #RLWC2021 pic.twitter.com/N1ypwcSszL
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 29, 2022
Makinson, playing at full-back in place of the rested skipper Sam Tomkins, joined the try-scoring party at the start of the second half by reacting quickest to ground the ball.
England were running riot and the superb Sneyd touched down to take his points tally in the game to 30, after also kicking 13 conversions.
Burgess went over again from a Sneyd pass and Hall touched down his 14th World Cup try to close in on Australian legend Billy Slater’s record of 16 and take his tally to 39 in 40 for England.
England were relentless and the scoreline kept ticking as Batchelor slid home on his first Test appearance as did Pearce-Paul, while Ackers also got on the scoresheet twice.
For Greece, the loudest cheer of the afternoon arguably came for them in the opening period when 18-year-old full-back Taukamo side-stepped Pearce-Paul to score, but their first World Cup campaign ends with three defeats from three
๐ @batjoelor capped a solid test debut with a try against @GreekRL today!
๐ The second-rower gave us his thoughts on #EnglandRL's performance…
— England Rugby League (@England_RL) October 29, 2022
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ @matt_lees1 scored his first #EnglandRL try in Sheffield this afternoon!
๐ฃ๏ธ Hear the post match thoughts of the #EnglandRL & @Saints1890 forward…
— England Rugby League (@England_RL) October 29, 2022
