Drawing a line: The motivation behind England's defiant stance

Assistant coach Sam Tomkins has confirmed he is the man who instructed England to stand on halfway during the Siva Tau and block Samoan players from placing so much as a toe across halfway.

Video of the confrontation during the war cry from Sunday's first Test has gone viral, with unlikely praise from England rugby union prop Joe Marler who Tweeted that such pre-match rituals were “only any good when teams actually front it with some sort of reply. Like the league boys did last week".

Captain George Williams revealed after England’s 34-18 win his team’s aim was to prevent their opponents crossing halfway. pan66.com asked forward Mike McMeeken the origins of that edict.

“It’s actually Sam Tomkins who came up with that,” said 30-year-old McMeeken, who switches from Catalans to Wakefield next season.

“He said he faced it when he was younger as a player coming through and how they let them come into their half.

“He said ‘rugby league’s a game of inches and you’re letting them come into your half’.

“People might think it’s... I don’t know but it was our way of saying ‘you’ve got to earn every inch to come into our half.’ I thought they met it well and it was a good start to the game, from that moment.”

England Rugby League no longer use the hashtag #wallofwhite but it appears the catchphrase may have had a deeper meaning than had been apparent at the time.

Asked about his stance, Tomkins said: “We play a pretty simple sport - it’s a territory game.

“You’re going to be knocking lumps out each other to not let people into your own half. I just think: we respect what anybody does before a game whether it be a Haka, Sipi Tau, whatever it may be.

“But I feel it should be done in your own half of the field.

“So we stand on the halfway line and we respect them enough to give them 50 metres of the field to do what they want but I don’t see the reason they have to come into your half to do it. 

“I’d thought it for a long time and when I had the chance as the England captain to decide where we stand, I decided the halfway line was where we wanted to do it."

Previously, Tomkins recalled, “we stand on the 40-metre line, they stand on the 40-metre line and you wait til they come into your half and they can come as close as they want to you. 

“For me it’s quite simple: half the field’s yours and half the field’s ours and we’ll protect our half before kick-off the same way we will during the game.”

There is enormous anticipation for the pre-match this Saturday at Headingley, where only standing tickets remain. England play Wales in a women’s international at midday local time.

Chris Kendall has been named referee for the men’s game but the Rugby Football League was at pains to stress Liam Moore had not been dropped - the appointments were made before the series began.