And with Barnett’s troops guilty of a series of missed opportunities the England coach was quick to temper the team’s celebrations.

“This was a really tough, close game,” said Barnett. “We created lots of chances but the disappointing thing was that we didn't finish off all of them or get all the points we deserved.

“Even so, we kept battling until the end and there were some great individual performances.

“We are now looking forward to our next game against Spain on Sunday where we'll have a chance to try and cut out the errors and turn these opportunities into points.

“This was a good start to our season and is a great platform for us now to build on.”

After a tight opening to the game, which saw both sides battling to create opportunities, it was England who got the first points on the board through Keates’ try.

The Worcester prop was found in space and crossed in the corner after good work from Georgina Roberts and Fran Matthew. Chamberlain missed the subsequent conversion.

The visitors went into the break level though thanks to Elisha Dee, who drove through the England defence to score.

Whatever Barnett said to his players at half time seemed to work though, as they began to take control immediately after the interval.

And their dominance paid off when the ball was taken through midfield and Matthews scored the easiest of try’s to put England 12-5 up.

Nomads had a great opportunity to level things up five minutes before the end, but Shelley Rae missed a conversion after Henrietta Hegberg’s try, handing England a well-deserved victory.