Young and England got off to a flyer at St James' Park, the Three Lions producing a 60-6 rout of the heavily fancied Pacific Island nation.

Littered with NRL talent, Samoa had been the talk of the tournament pre-game but England were at their best in front of 43,199 fans.

Young scored England's second and third tries.

In the 24th minute, he found space on the right flank and dashed down the touchline before heading infield to score next to the goalposts.

Five minutes later, England five-eighth Jack Welsby thew a cut-out pass to Young who dived over the try-line barely half a metre inside the corner post and put the ball down with one hand.

"I guess a lot of people over here probably haven't seen too much of me with me being in Australia but every time I step on the field, I try and do what is best for the team and work hard and luckily I got a bit of space today and could show what I'm about," Young said.

"It's a dream come true, to be honest with you.

"I couldn't have imagined that start before the game, to have all my family and friends watching it live."

England went on to score a further seven tries, including six in the last 15 minutes, as Samoa, who had multiple players sustain injuries, collapsed late in the game.

The match had been billed as a too-close-to-call affair but ended up being a major embarrassment for some of Samoa's NRL stars.

"We won't get carried away, it's not the English way," England coach Shaun Wane said. "We have to get better and we will.

"I know nobody gave us a chance but we knew what we could do. We enjoyed all that negativity to be honest."

Canberra Raiders forward Elliott Whitehead also bagged a double, while Broncos centre Herbie Farnworth found the try-line, as did Jack Welsby, Kallum Watkins, Tommy Makinson, George Williams and Tom Burgess.

Sydney Roosters forward Victor Radley was named man of the match.

For Samoa, their pre-match rendition of the Manu Siva Tau, their traditional war dance taken right up to their oponnents, was about as threatening as they got.

Even with their powerful grand final-laden crew, they were rusty, ill-disciplined and guilty of countless handling errors, only managing to breach the England line through a first-half interception from Izack Tago.

Fullback Joseph Sua'ali'i's threatening runs were peppered with him dropping the ball while former Knights half Anthony Milford took a second-half trip to the sin-bin for a late hit on England captain Sam Tomkins.

Samoa play international minnow Greece next Monday (AEDT) but are almost certain to be without Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Tyrone May.

England take on France Sunday morning (AEDT).

Australia beat Fiji 42-8 in the other game played Sunday.

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