McDermott urges England to keep calm as World Cup semi-final hopes hang by a thread
Brian McDermott urged England to keep their nerve as they attempt to qualify for the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals in Wollongong on Friday after an opening defeat left their progression precarious.
England’s prospects were badly damaged by a loss to Tonga in their opening group game a fortnight ago, and the tournament’s shortened 10-team format has complicated qualification permutations; an 82-0 victory over France last Saturday nonetheless left qualification theoretically possible but requires a 68-point swing in points difference between England and Samoa.
England Brimson; Young, Savala, Farnworth, Ashton; Williams, Smith; King, Litten, Thompson, Nsemba, Pearce-Paul, Knowles. Interchange Lewis, Walters, Havard, O’Neill, Eckersley, Watkins.
Papua New Guinea Laybutt; Derby, Feledy, Macdonald, Dotoi; Voro, Biondi-Odo; Kapinias, Horne, Moretti, Martin, Putt, Richard. Interchange Glare, Taulani, Mathias, Wabo, John, Tai.
McDermott described the circumstances and permutations as “remarkable” this week and made clear the pressure on his players, saying: “I don’t know how many coaches have been in this position before where they know they need to win by a big score. “It’s a difficult situation to negotiate because you don’t want to show any disrespect to the opposition. So to suggest we would want to score a lot of points, it sounds disrespectful. “There’s a discipline in that we don’t start looking for things or searching for things outside of how we want to play. And that was a really impressive trick against France because we knew we had points in us and they weren’t coming for that first 20 minutes. We can’t get to the points first, we’ve got to get through the physicality.”
Papua New Guinea arrive with a large contingent of England-based players and, having trailed Samoa 14-6 at half-time in Port Moresby last week, collapsed to a 64-6 defeat; they, too, need a substantial victory if they are to remain in contention, while England begin the match as heavy favourites.
McDermott made one significant change to his matchday selection by naming Hull KR hooker Jez Litten to start in place of Wigan’s Brad O’Neill, who drops to the bench, saying: “It’s more about the best fit for the gameplan. They all understand the concept of it being a squad effort. It’s not just a team effort. We’ve got a specific task against PNG and I think it’ll be a stiffer test than against France. And we find ourselves in a similar situation, because we don’t just need to beat them, we need to beat them convincingly.” He also outlined the roles of his key backs, noting Mikey Lewis would be used from the bench to stretch PNG and praising captain George Williams: “George was the guy who broke the game open for us last week against France,” McDermott said. “That’s why he’s in the team, he’s in the team because he’s the captain and because he’s a good player, but he’s also a runner. And he ran, and broke France’s defensive line down and opened it up for us a bit.”
England must beat Papua New Guinea in Wollongong on Friday and hope Tonga defeat Samoa on Sunday to achieve the 68-point swing required to surpass Samoa on points difference; England’s women need to beat Samoa in their earlier Friday kick-off to reach the semi-finals, with defeat meaning elimination, and Tom Coyd’s wheelchair side begin their title defence against Wales in the early hours of Friday, with that side described as heavy favourites.
