Gold Cup 2005 Virginia

After a sluggish start to the campaign, England’s bid to win their first World Cup since 1972 looks to be doomed already. Written off by many in the Australian media prior to the tournament kick off in Townsville last Saturday, England’s narrow 32-22 win over Papua New Guinea - coupled with Australia’s 30 points to 6 demolition of New Zealand - has confirmed to many that the trophy might as well be given to the Kangaroos now and be done with it.

England Upbeat

England's players remain upbeat about their task however and are confident that despite their slow start against the Kumals they can overcome the hosts in Melbourne and book their place in the semi-final. Leeds Rhinos half back Danny McGuire told BBC Sport:

“A lot of the players hadn’t played since the Grand Final and you could probably see that with how we performed. As a team we’d not played together since the mid-season test against France so it was nice to get a run out. Hopefully we’ve got the rustiness out and we can kick on now and put in a good performance against Australia at the weekend.”