Wales capitailised on Serbian indiscipline to build a 30-0 half time lead, spine trio of Billy Walkley, Josh Ralph and hooker Matty Fozard – who opened the scoring and finished with 18 points – dominating. Skipper Elliot Kear scored the try of the game, capitalising on a fine Rhys Williams break from inside his own half.

Wales men’s head coach John Kear was forced to miss the game having been admitted to hospital on Sunday night with the support of WRL medical staff. He remained there on Monday and Tuesday while doctors carried out a series of tests, before being discharged late on Tuesday afternoon.

His assistant, Mark Moxon, said: “We are delighted with the result, and I thought the performance was very good as well, particularly in the first half where we did everything we planned to. In this camp so far, we’ve been pleased with a half against Jamaica in our warm up game and a half against Serbia. To give ourselves half a chance against France, we need to bolt those two halves together. If we do that, I’m sure we can challenge them.”

Serbia tightened up in the second half but the damage had been done. “The early penalties really cost us,” said Serbia men’s head coach Darren Fisher. “That had a big effect on us being able to get a second wind, especially in the middle. Some belief returned after the break and we pushed more with the ball, that’s the positive we’ll take into the Ukraine game. We can see improvement.”