Will England get utterly pumped or scrape a win? Samoa team looks decent on paper but them not having played much will help England. If we go as far as getting to play them again later on in the competition I think that game would be even harder. Losing the likes of Walmsley, Dodd, Lomax, Newman etc was the last thing England needed.

As for Australia Vs Fiji it's Australia by 70 for me. I know Fiji rested some of their best players for the warm up but they looked clueless and with Brian McDermott in charge they're even less likely to compete. Australia playing with random numbers on their backs will get on everyone's tits. I've got a ticket for this game and looking forward to it despite it being massively one sided by the looks of it.

Like pretty much every world cup I can remember it is a must win first game for England in terms of giving us a chance at the big prize, can't see them progressing far if we don't win this group (leaving an expected knockout draw of Tonga, Samoa, Aus/NZ).

It wouldn't surprise me if both were relatively close games. Australia haven't had any warm up games and have said they won't be playing any players who played in the Grand Final against Fiji. Australia aren't usually a team that will put the hammer down and try to humiliate their opposition, so I don't see them winning by too much.

Samoa v England will depend a lot on how seriously Samoa are taking it. They've also had no warm up games that I'm aware of. An 8-12 point England win would be my guess, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they beat us given the quality of the individuals they have in their side. It'll be interesting to see how Jerome Luai handles the World Cup. It could cement his position as the most hated player in World Rugby League, or he could use it to win a few hearts and minds back.

The majority of the Samoan team were in the grand final… which was only a couple of weeks ago… so the lack of a warm up is understandable… and the majority of the squad played finals footy so will be pretty fit…

The only issue would be coordination and timing… but a lot of the key combinations have experienced playing together.

This is a game I’m really looking forward to so no score predictions

The Kangaroos will beat Fiji by 20

Samoa will win by about 12 points.

Nice to see some good time on the BBC to build up the game and the tournament, although some of the correspondents the BBC use should be nowhere near it.

Some odd choices for me in the England 17, hopefully we get a good performance.

Classic RL.

England going OK but there is certainly room for improvement, particularly those last tackle plays.

Samoa look like they could tear us part if they get things together and the ball sticks.

Game could go either way. Like most internationals, the atmosphere seems pretty dead.

Maclorum is terrible..

He has never been International level. Hill and Cooper lucky to be playing with the other options we have. As long as England don't switch off in defence should be OK.

Much better from England than I expected so far. Look very well drilled in fairness to Wane.

Samoa down to 15 and looking (or being made to look) a bit disjointed. Next score will be important, to roll out that old cliche.

Wingers and centres excellent doing hard yards early in the sets. Forwards been great stopping Samoa getting any field position until the last 10/15 or so. Need to wrap up the ball and stop the offloads are that will kill us. Frustrating that Welsby through the interception pass, it worked twice that side already and with The Hammer off injured i'd still be targetting that side as it'll be disjointed.

We do need to take advantage of the field position we had. Samoa surely won't be as bad in the second half as they were in the first half.

England kicking game not all that.

Well, that will shut a few of the miserable plebs up on here.

I see your rugby league knowledge is as accurate as ever.

Pretty damned good from England. Williams certainly justified his selection. Welsby good with ball in hand, kicking not so much. Outside backs all impressive too.

The doom mongers will no doubt be focusing on the St James' Park PA system.

The pivots of Tomkins, Williams and Welsby worked very well and fed our outside backs with quality plays.
Thought our weakness at times was at no 9 with distribution, when Ridley went there we looked better and we started to pile on the points.

Good confidence booster that for the team and Wane.

On a side note I thought the Samoa coach Parish looked as though he had just got out of bed and had a sleepy look about him.

Isn't there a Train Station in Leeds?

Aussie shirt numbers.
Bunch of s, as ever.

Thought Fiji started the game well! Gave the Aussie’s a bit of a scare but then a silly defensive read put Addo-Carr away. After that, the Aussie’s were too good. However they don’t look unbeatable like they used too. Even though they do have the Penrith lads to come back.

Thought Australia and England had a very similar approach to the game and the pattern of play was similar as well. Our weakness looks to be the No 9 position compared to Australia who just bring Grant into that position to up the game. Wane needs to sort that position out before we go into knock out rugby.

Wane can place Radley there if needs must.

I wondered what Keith Richards was doing in the Samoa dug out.

To be fair. I thought Ackers would have excelled yesterday when the likes of Tomkins, Welsby and Williams were tearing up the ruck. McIllorum’s distribution needs sorting but he was a lot more solid against Samoa’s pack than I thought he would be. That will be important early doors against the likes of Big Tino/RCG and Big NAS/Fisher-Harris.

Thought McLlorum's defence was decent in the first quarter, I think both No 9's struggled with their distribution, Levi had a really bad spell didn't know his passing options and picked the wrong players at times and didn't mix it up with short and long passes.