England winger Ryan Hall admits the 10-point winning margin they need to guarantee a spot in the Four Nations final has been discussed during training this week – but says the squad cannot afford to focus on it too much.
Victory by 10 points will see England advance to the Wellington final next weekend – and open the door for either Australia or Samoa to overhaul the Kiwis. However, Hall insists England can’t dwell on that number when they head into the game in Dunedin on Saturday – saying if they do, they will lose their focus when it comes to actually winning the game.
“It’s been mentioned once or twice but you can’t look too much at that because, if we start chasing things that aren’t there, that’s where you start losing other parts of your game which you need to concentrate on,” Hall said.
“So it’s in the back of our minds but it’s not the be-all and end-all.”
“It’s a difficult one,” agreed England second rower Brett Ferres. “You can’t exactly go into a game thinking we need to win by 10.
“We need to go out there and perform for the 80, crack some sets off and work hard to put ourselves in a position where we can take our opportunities and get a result.”
