McDermott urges patience as England seek big win over Papua New Guinea
England boss Brian McDermott urged his players not to panic as they chase points against Papua New Guinea in Wollongong on Friday, 30 October, at 09:05 GMT in the Rugby League World Cup, saying the side must stick to its gameplan to keep hopes of reaching the knockout stages alive.
England, who have never previously failed to reach the World Cup knockout rounds, require a points-difference swing of 68 over rivals Samoa and need Samoa to lose to Tonga on Sunday to remain in semi-final contention; McDermott said he wants his team to follow the blueprint that produced an 82-0 win over France last weekend.
McDermott warned against overreaching early and urged discipline in execution, saying: "I suppose [it's a case of] whatever timescale it is before the arm wrestles starts to open up the game for each team... I'm not sure, it could be 15 [minutes], it could be 20, it could be 35, it could be the first half."
He added: "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." England were scoreless for the first 22 minutes against France before accelerating to record their biggest-ever margin of victory over that opponent.
Selection for Friday's game saw Warrington winger Matty Ashton kept on the left and Hull KR's Jez Litten chosen at hooker ahead of Wigan's Brad O'Neill; O'Neill, recently crowned Super League Man of Steel, is included among the interchanges alongside team-mate Zach Eckersley. Brisbane Broncos prop Ben Talty has not yet featured for England, late call-up Kallum Watkins is on the bench with Victor Radley and Jack Welsby dropping out, and Morgan Knowles is set to make his first tournament appearance.
McDermott addressed difficult selection conversations: "It's that hard call knowing that you've got to have a tough chat with someone like Brad O'Neill, who's probably not doing anything wrong," McDermott said. "It's more about, I guess, the best fit for gameplan. They all understand the concept of it being a squad effort. It's not just a team effort."
He continued on the task at hand and the players' response: "We've got a specific task this weekend against PNG and I think it'll be a stiffer test than it was against France last week. And we find ourselves in a similar situation, because we don't just need to beat them, we need to beat them convincingly. Picking a team that's best suited to that is the main task. So yeah, they're not the easiest conversations to have, but they are when the player themselves has got a lot of humility - and Brad was great."
England's opponents showed vulnerability last weekend: Papua New Guinea trailed Samoa 14-6 at half-time before collapsing in the second period and losing 64-6. McDermott also commented on Knowles' return after missing England's 30-12 defeat by Tonga on 17 October with a calf issue and on the player's recent family news, saying: "The baby was delivered yesterday [Wednesday]. I haven't spoke to Morgan yet, but he's probably got his hands full changing nappies," and adding, "He's had a fair bit going on, but I'm really keen to get him in the team and looking forward to watching him play tomorrow. He'll be good and he's really keen to get back with the team and start playing. Everybody's pleased for Morgan and you know, we'll all go for it."
On the women's side, England prop Vicky Whitfield described the 78-0 defeat by Australia as the "best preparation" ahead of their decisive Pool A game with Samoa on Friday at 06:45 GMT, saying: "It gets us used to that quicker pace. Australia threw a lot of shape at us. So defensively, it was a great test for us to have going into this game." She added: "It got us used to mapping off and being able to defend against that sort of shape. So yeah, [it's the] best preparation really. We knew coming into this week that this game was the one that was really important to us. We did what we did and then have had that focus of going again and resetting."
While England's women have not yet appeared in a World Cup final (Great Britain lost to New Zealand in the showpiece match in 2000), reaching a fifth successive semi-final has been a stated aim for Stuart Barrow's squad; on that prospect Whitefield said: "It's everything that we want. If that was to happen, we would be buzzing as a team and it would just be a really great feeling to know that we've managed to do what we've come out here to do, get to a semi and then hopefully perform in that as well."
England's next confirmed fixtures are the men's match against Papua New Guinea on Friday, 30 October at 09:05 GMT and the women's Pool A game against Samoa on Friday at 06:45 GMT, both with live commentary available on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.