England pray for Tongan miracle to keep World Cup dream alive
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‘There’s always a chance’
That’s the mindset in the England camp as they navigate a nervous 48-hour wait to see if their IRL Rugby League World Cup dream still has a pulse.
A scratchy 34-12 victory over a spirited Papua New Guinea on Friday night left England needing a miracle to keep their tournament alive.
England were on early!
To qualify for the semi-finals, Brian McDermott’s men need Tonga to beat Samoa by 47 points in Sunday night’s showdown between the Pacific rivals at a sold-out CommBank Stadium.
England recognise it’s unlikely but haven’t given up hope just yet.
“We’ll watch it together as a team,” captain George Williams said. “There’s always a chance, it’s obviously pretty slim but hopefully Tonga can give us a bit of a miracle.
[Tonga coach Kristian Woolf] texted me today saying they’re going to do that, try and win for us.”
Match: England v Papua New Guinea
Round 3 -
home Team
England
2nd Position
away Team
Papua New Guinea
4th Position
Venue: WIN Stadium, Wollongong
England entered Friday's match at a 68-point differential disadvantage to Samoa and knowing they had to chase points from the opening whistle.
The early signs were promising as they jumped out to a 22-0 lead after 21 minutes. From there, the Kumuls steadied the ship and the points dried up.
It took England another 48 minutes to cross for their next try as their hopes of a big win evaporated. In that time, PNG coach Jason Demetriou delivered a half-time spray that spurred his team into action and they scored two quick tries after the break to make it 24-12.
Dominic Young Try
At that point, PNG looked every chance of finishing over the top of their rivals and England’s focus shifted to simply winning the match.
McDermott’s side eventually steadied the ship to claim two late tries and secure a 22-point victory but it was not the margin they had in mind.
Such were the emotions after the game, the coach initially described the result as a loss in his post-match press conference before correcting himself.
“It was a difficult situation to find ourselves in the second half,” McDermott said. “If all we needed to do was win the game, I reckon we would have handled the nature of the second half a lot better.
“You just kick the ball long, defend a couple of sets and keep hold of possession for a little while but we had to score 60 points. That was the narrative and has been the narrative for two weeks.
“We dealt with that a lot better last week. PNG are a bit more physical than France and certainly were more physical in the second half after they had a blast at half-time by the coach.
“It feels like we lost the game. We won the game and I’m really proud but I think something remarkable is going to have to happen for us to go through.”
Barring a miracle, Friday’s result brings to a close a disappointing World Cup campaign for the English.
The exit of Shaun Wane in January and McDermott’s appointment in April left the new coach with just six months to build a squad and develop a playing style suited to the fast-paced Australian game.
AJ Brimson Try
While there were promising signs, a Week 1 loss to Tonga in Perth ultimately left the nation chasing results for the remainder of the competition.
McDermott signed a short-term deal to the end of the tournament but is eager to remain in charge through to the next World Cup and is confident the platform has been laid for future success.
“I’d like to do the job,” he said. “I have a four-year plan in place for the next World Cup, which is how it should be.
“I’m really excited by that because if we can do what we’ve done over the last three weeks, if we can put that into a plan for the next four years and have a proper, strategic plan building up to the next World Cup, that would be good.”
