SAINTS' Mose Masoe did his best to disrupt England's opening Four Nations campaign before Steve McNamara's men squeezed home victors 32-26.

The man-mountain prop, who went into the tournament buzzing from his Grand Final success with St Helens, scattered defenders at key times to put England on the back foot and pave the way for tries that put Samoa ahead in the first half and then again in the second period at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

But England, gallantly led by former Saints prop James Graham, did enough with two tries from kicks in the last quarter to survive a tough Test ahead of bigger challenges to come against Australia and New Zealand.

An impressive international debut from Castleford Tigers' Man of Steel winner Daryl Clark helped England to their success.

The hooker gave a superb assist for Castleford teammate Michael Shenton to open the scoring moments after entering the field for his first taste of England action.

It saw England head into the break with a narrow lead, with a Kallum Watkins score following tries for Samoa from Isaac Liu and Daniel Vidot.

The sides traded scores when a flurry of tries came after the interval with Liam Farrell, Joel Tomkins and Sam Tomkins crossing for England, while Pita Godinet’s double and an Antonio Winterstein effort provided an exciting finale.

England had been forced to deal with a fierce Samoan attack early on, gifting the Pacific Islanders the ball in hand after a knock-on from ex-Saint Matty Smith before conceding a penalty.

McNamara’s side were able to gain possession for the first time when, following Samoa stand-off Ben Roberts being stopped narrowly short, a knock on returned the ball in England’s favour.

Sam Tomkins was next to stop Samoa crossing when he dived superbly on a Roberts’ grubber in front the England try line before winger Vidot could pounce.

With 13 minutes played England knocked on from the first drive of a set, Watkins spilling in the tackle inside his own 20-metre zone.

A fifth penalty in the opening 15 minutes continued to hand Samoa the ball and England were forced to deal with another onslaught of blue bodies, albeit holding firm.

Moments later, having soaked up the Samoan pressure, Tomkins inadvertently juggled a pass to send Watkins free, but the Leeds Rhinos man was called back for a knock on.

Cue the arrival of Warrington Wolves’ new hooker signing 20 minutes in. Clark was in quickly to gather just inside the Samoa half after Farrell was tackled.

The England debutant, with his first touch of the ball in international rugby, danced between three would-be Samoa tacklers before drawing the full back and feeding former ex-Saint Shenton to go the distance.

The video referee took a quick check before awarding the try and allowing Gareth Widdop to add the extras.

However, four minutes later Samoa forced the ball through the middle and Liu was able to barge his way over between the sticks. Kyle Stanley levelled with the boot.

On the half hour mark Samoa took the lead for the first time.

For all England’s solid defence early on they could not stop a second try in five minutes as the ball, after Mose's barging drive, was whisked wide right for winger Vidot to finish, but Stanley’s conversion was way off.

Chris Hill led the recovery. The powerful forward was stopped short in front of the Samoa sticks before quick hands from Smith and Tomkins put Watkins in for a simple touchdown.

Widdop converted from a tight angle to edge England ahead.

Clark was caught by three defenders and looked to have been hurt but the Man of Steel recovered to his feet, with Widdop opting to kick the penalty and give England a four-point lead at the break.

An early hit from Masoe on George Burgess in the second half set the tone, with the South Sydney Rabbitohs man then knocked backwards by a Masoe drive.

But within two minutes England had increased their lead. Hill side-stepped his way past two defenders before lofting a pass out to Josh Charnley.

The Wigan winger was halted wide right, but it allowed England to move the ball left through half backs Smith and Widdop with Farrell hitting a gap to scoot over. Widdop kicked the extras.

Samoa hit back in the 55th minute following a superb dummy from Godinet.

Hill made the original tackle, but the Wakefield man picked up from dummy half, sent the England defence the wrong way with a dummy and eased over the line for a converted score.

Masoe was next to burst a hole in the England defence.

He offloaded to Pritchard, who was caught with no support, before an unpredictable bounce almost caught Tomkins and Ryan Hall out when a deep kick appeared to be going dead.

Moments later and Samoa did find their reply, Godinet again picking up from dummy half and squeezing through several England bodies for a try awarded by the video referee.

The left boot of Stanley added the extras to put the Pacific Islanders back into the lead on the hour mark.

The flurry of scores continued four minutes later, with the lead this time swinging back in England’s favour.

Smith put a high bomb up for Shenton to out-leap the Samoa defence five metres out. The Castleford man could not gather cleanly, but fumbled the ball backwards into the path of Joel Tomkins for his first international score.

Another high kick from Smith caused Samoa problems on 68 minutes, with Sam Tomkins this time benefiting from full back Tim Simona’s spillage to collect, reach out and touch down. Widdop converted.

Adopting the tactic successfully applied by their opponents, Samoa took to the high ball to put pressure on the England line.

It paid off as they re-gathered possession before handing on for Winterstein to power over with Charnley and Watkins for company. But Roberts pulled the conversion wide.

It sparked a frantic finish but England held on to open their Four Nations campaign with a win.