England 18 Combined Nations All Stars 4: Shaun Wane insists door remains wide open for majority of World Cup squad places

England led 12-0 at half-time and were 18-0 ahead early in the second half, before All Stars managed their only consolation try.

Beaten by the same opposition a year ago - when they were preparing for an expected autumn World Cup - Wane’s men look more ready now.

But with their opening game of the delayed tournament, against Samoa, almost four months away, a lot could change and Wane insists very few places on his teamsheet for that game are set in stone.

Full-back Sam Tomkins is one of those, but - surprisingly - the coach said John Bateman isn’t.

The Wigan man, selected at loose-forward, was player of the match against All Stars, setting up England’s second try for George Williams and powering over the line himself after the break.

Tomkins’ Leeds-born Catalans Dragons team-mate Michael McIlroum could be another, at hooker.

Leeds’ Kruise Leeming and Daryl Clark, Warrington Wolves’ former Castleford Tigers No 9, were both in Combined Nations’ 17 and the Rhinos man was their best player.

But Wane reflected: “I am a big fan of Daryl, a big fan of Kruise; I thought Micky was the best.

“Paul McShane (Castleford’s hooker and captain who was among England’s substitutes) can do a lot better than he did - I am a big fan of Macca, but I thought Micky was the stand-out best.

“Kruise and Daryl did what we expected, they ran and did that very well, but I thought we defended it very well.”

Another likely inclusion is St Helens’ Tommy Makinson.

“He is a fantastic winger, he gets us going forward,” Wane said.

“He plays above his weight and I love him to pieces, he’s a great kid, really good around the camp.

“He keeps everybody upbeat and he really impressed me, I thought he was brilliant.”

Of Bateman, Wane noted: “He was good, playing in the middle, with a bit of freedom.

“I thought he had a really good game, apart from a tackle miss in the first half.”

But asked how many players are “nailed on” to play against Samoa, the boss stressed: “I am not sure John’s one of them. I would say three or four, nailed on, but if their performances dip this year...

“When I say the door’s open, I genuinely mean that. I listen to the coaches and watch all the games.

“If somebody’s playing really well, it is an open door. Anybody could force their way in, that’s a real positive for us.

“There’s more than 10 (places open). I like what Sam (Tomkins) did, he would be pretty much nailed on for full-back, but if his form dipped he’d be out.

“The players wouldn’t expect anything else - I hope they wouldn’t, anyway.”

In front of a crowd of 9,393 at Warrington, Huddersfield centre Jake Wardle, on his England debut, scored the opening try, all three of them being converted by Tomkins and Ken Sio grabbed All Stars’ response.

England have only one more fixture before facing Samoa, against Fiji, but Wane insisted preparations are on track.

“It was a good game, against a good team,” he said.

“I thought we did some really good things overall. There’s a few things we need to get better at, but more good than bad.

“Things we’ve practiced over the last 12 months we did and did really well.”

Unlike last year, the All Stars fixture was given a stand-alone date in the calendar, with no Betfred Super League fixtures scheduled last weekend.

Combined Nations were hit by withdrawals due to injuries and suspensions and had only very limited preparation, but Wane is keen to see the concept continue.

He said: “It was a good hit out.

“(The players’ data) will be similar to a Test match, they were going at it. They (All Stars) are big bodies, very similar to Samoa and I thought we handled them really well.

“I thought we defended tough, they were physically a lot bigger and heavier than us and we’ll have that at the World Cup as well so I thought our detail was good in contact.”

He added: “We’re not the biggest nation.

“We don’t have 125kg blokes and a lot of other nations do so we have to play to the strength of our players so we need more people in motion, more people live and our skill needs to be very good.

“I thought we did that in patches, just not often enough for me.”

England’s next training session is in July, with another get-together the following month.

Combined Nations’ squad also included Rhinos’ Rhyse Martin, Zane Tetevano and Matt Prior, who suffered a sternum injury and played only 15 minutes.

Their coach Ellery Hanley, the former Leeds and Great Britain great, felt his side’s discipline wasn’t good enough.

“We weren’t clinical enough in terms of finishing off the opportunities we had,” he added.

“The camp has been fantastic but you have to transfer what you do in training on to the field.

“We could have made the game closer, but I am proud of the guys and from an England point of view.

“I thought they played well in large parts.”