Samoa coach Matt Parish has denied his team gave up in their World Cup opener against England, but admitted they need to be more resilient.

Samoa were smashed 60-6 at St James’ Park in a historic rout.

England ran in 10 tries, with Dom Young and Elliot Whitehead both grabbing doubles.

Parish denied he was shellshocked after the heavy loss.

“No, I am alright,” he said.

“It isn’t the result we wanted obviously. It is what it is. The English team played very well, we got a few injuries, a few setbacks we couldn’t handle as well as we could.

“They got a lot of momentum – we couldn’t swing it back. We didn’t have a lot of luck injury wise but …. We have to be a lot more resilient than we were.”

Samoa were down 18-6 at half-time but completely fell apart in the second half, with England scoring six tries in the final 16 minutes.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Marker set.

England get their RLWC2021 campaign off to the best possible start with a comprehensive win over Samoa.#RLWC2021 | @England_RL pic.twitter.com/jAM90RSNSD

— Rugby League World Cup 2021 (@RLWC2021) October 15, 2022

“It’s disappointing,” Parish conceded.

“As I said, we rolled in here this morning with a good team and we still have a good team.

“I wouldn’t say that [we have up]. We had a man in the sin bin, a second rower in the centre, one centre who was busted. So I definitely wouldn’t say that.

“We had players out of position. Early in the second half Tyrone May, the centre, got carried off. Again, there is no excuse for the scoreline but you know.”

Samoa next face Greece in Doncaster. Defeat would see the Pacific nation eliminated from the qualifying stages.

Parish insists his side can bounce back.

“We could play that game again tomorrow and it would be an entirely different result,” he said.

“As we have always said, we will build from this performance.

“It wasn’t the performance we wanted today but we still have a group of guys in there who are determined to do something this World Cup.

“Nothing has changed from that.”