After many years when England and Great Britain have mixed, muddled and fudged their way through in the pivotal stand-off position, Tony Smith has his pick of two contrasting but outstanding talents in Sam Tomkins and Danny McGuire for the Gillette Four Nations series.

Tomkins, 20, has enjoyed a meteoric rise with Wigan Warriors this year and impressively laid down a marker by scoring a debut hat-trick of tries for England and laying on three of six more against a brave but outgunned Wales. “I don’t pick the team, that’s Tony’s job, but I’m sure he’ll select sides he feels can win all our games,” Tomkins said. “Hopefully, I’ll be part of his plans.”

While praising Tomkins’s broken field play in Bridgend on Saturday, Smith also noted that “some of our skills were a little off at times, as was some of our decision-making, but that’s understandable when there are guys who hadn’t played for a while”.

Smith has installed Richie Myler, 19, as his first-choice scrum half, but the selection of Tomkins or McGuire to partner him in Friday’s opening Four Nations game against France in Doncaster will also indicate Smith’s preference for the key encounter with Australia a week on Saturday.

A weaker Wales side than the one thrashed 74-0 in last year’s corresponding fixture mounted stiffer resistance than was thought possible, in Iestyn Harris’s first game as coach.

Scorers: Wales: Tries: Kopczak, Watson. Goals: White 2. England: Tries: Tomkins 3, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Burgess, Briscoe 2, O’Loughlin, Morley. Goals: Sykes 6.

Wales: E Kear; R Williams, R Griffiths, A Blackwood, A Bateman; L White, I Webster; J James, N Budworth, G Dudson, C Kopczak, B Flower, G Davies. Interchange: I Watson, L Williams, R Divorty, M Barron.

England: P Sykes; T Briscoe, M Shenton, S O’Loughlin, P Fox; S Tomkins, R Myler; A Morley, S Moore, G Carvell, G Ellis, B Westwood, S Burgess. Interchange: L McCarthy-Scarsbrook, M Higham, D Tickle, C Bridge.

Referee: T Alibert (France).