Brian McDermott has warned his England side not to chase the points as they look to keep their slim Rugby League World Cup hopes alive with a big win against Papua New Guinea. England are up against it in their bid to make it through to the semi-finals after they lost 30-12 to Tonga in their opening game. They must beat Papua New Guinea in their final pool game in Woollongong on Friday and then wait until Sunday, when they need Tonga to beat Samoa, upon whom England must also make up a 68-point deficit.
That means tries will be the order of the day against Papua New Guinea but McDermott, who saw his side beat France 82-0 in their second game, has called for patience. "We've got a specific task this weekend. I think it'll be a stiffer test than it was against France," McDermott said at his Thursday press conference.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "We once again find ourselves in another similar situation, very unique as well, that we don't just need to beat them, we need to be beat them convincingly. "If we're going to go through, we need to score the points, but we can't get to the points first. "We've got to get to the physicality first and we're going to manage a very physical team, a very dominant team.
"There's a discipline in that we don't start looking for things or searching for things outside of how we want to play. "That was really impressive against France because we knew we had points in us and they weren't coming in that first 20 [minutes]. We didn't try to do anything different.
"Every team, and I've been involved in so many teams, where you're winning by a large margin and you either take your foot off the gas because we think it's job done or you start to overplay. "But against France we stuck to the game model and just put it on rinse and repeat." While England made hay against the French in Perth, McDermott knows Papua New Guinea represent a tougher task. "They're well coached by Jason Demetriou, who's got a chunk of players who are playing in the British game as well," he said.
"So I think they are going to be really well co-ordinated." Quite simply, before Tonga face Samoa, England must beat Papua New Guinea and do it by a considerable margin. Samoa's thumping 78-4 win over France in their tournament opener and a 64-6 victory over Papua New Guinea on Saturday leaves them with an impressive +132 point difference. England beating France takes them to a +64 points difference, 68 points behind Samoa heading into the final round of fixtures.
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