McNamara sees value in France clash

Steve McNamara felt England's 11-try mauling of France had served a purpose as he celebrated his first game in charge of the national team with a 60-6 win in Leigh.

Wigan scrum-half Sam Tomkins scored a record-equalling four tries for the home side, while there were impressive contributions from his debutant brother Joel and Melbourne full-back Gareth Widdop.

"We can argue all day if it's right or wrong or intense enough, but the week and the game itself has served a whole lot of purposes for us," he said. "We've spent some time together, we've shown some very good combinations, scored some super tries and there were some poor things in there as well, so it was a nice mix for us."

McNamara's predecessor Tony Smith had argued when he left the post last year that the now traditional mid-season contest with France was of little use to England in their bid to challenge Australia and New Zealand's stranglehold on the international game, but McNamara feels the fixture still has its merits.

"I can understand the arguments but I'm more concerned with what we've got, which is what we had today. We attacked that as best we could," he said.

"We have ideas as to how we can enhance that and hopefully help France in any way that we can. If we can keep this game and add games that would be my ideal. But time will tell."

All four of Tomkins' tries came inside the opening half and his failure to add a fifth prevented him from separating himself from the other six men to have scored a quartet of tries for England.

But while McNamara joked he was glad his playmaker had not beaten the record, he was quick to herald his contribution.

"I'm glad he didn't score the fifth so he'll be hungry to do it next time," McNamara said.

"He was pretty hot there in the first-half. When you get to spend a week with these players and understand their strengths, you see that Sam has that little bit of X-Factor about him."