Leah Burke described her “special” day as she scored four tries in England’s record-breaking rout of France.
The St Helens winger helped get new coach Stuart Barrow’s reign emphatically under way. It was England’s first outing since last year’s World Cup semi-final exit against New Zealand. Burke, 24, said: “I am buzzing. Four tries is special.
“But it’s a reflection of how everyone else played. Our middles got us going and I just did my job finishing them off. It was tough losing to New Zealand. We thought we were good enough to beat them. A lot of the girls took some time away after that and it was needed. But we showed today how hard we have worked.”
Barrow said Burke “underplayed” her effort and added: “People describe Leah as a natural athlete. But you can only do those things if you work hard on your game and she’s done that over the last two years.
"We need a winger who can finish like that and she certainly did that today.”
Canberra-bound Hollie-Mae Dodd (2), York trio Tara-Jane Stanley, Tamzin Renouf and Sinead Peach, St Helens pair Shona Hoyle and Eboni Partington plus Leeds Rhinos centre Amy Hardcastle all scored tries with Stanley adding eight goals.
England had beaten the French 36-10 at the same venue in a World Cup warm-up last June and Barrow believes the clinical manner of their performance offers plenty of encouragement.
“I don’t think we came here today expecting that kind of result,” said Barrow. “We had a process and the players executed it really well, but as always there were things we can still improve upon.”
England currently have no further fixtures planned, and conjuring quality northern hemisphere opposition remains a problem, with Wales or France again the extent of their realistic options for a prospective autumn international.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t think we could bridge the gap (to Australia and New Zealand) and obviously having more competitive matches is going to help with that,” added Barrow.
“We’ve got a really good group of players and an increasing number of young players knocking on the door.”
