BRIAN McDERMOTT believes he’s seen progression from England during the World Cup after his side’s semi-final hopes were all but ended despite a 34-12 victory over Papua New Guinea.
Matty Ashton, AJ Brimson, Dom Young and Harry Smith scored early tries in Wollongong but hopes of producing a scoreline that could put them in a position to progress were dashed after the restart.
Dudley Dotoi and Gairo Voro both went over for PNG ahead of the hour mark, leaving further tries from Morgan Knowles and Mikey Lewis just to make a small in-road into the required total.
With a Tonga victory of more than 46 points required against Samoa, McDermott accepts England’s semi-final hopes are pretty much done, stating: “I’m disappointed that it looks like we’re going out of the tournament with that scoreline there.
“The second half got scrappy and had no flow, but I don’t think that was down to anything we were doing. We should’ve handled that a lot better, but even the Tonga game had a bit more flow.
“It was a difficult situation to find ourselves in during the second half. If all we needed to do was win the game, I think we would’ve handled the nature of it a lot better. Something remarkable would need to happen for us to go through.
“If you do a review of the camp and the tournament, I’ll be immensely proud.
“It’s been really enjoyable working with a group of men who are completely focused and committed – they’re so driven, all of the players. The staff have been great as well.
“Joining the NRL boys to the UK boys has been so easy; I thought it might’ve been something we needed to address, but it’s been so easy.
“Some of the senior players in the camp have been great. George (Williams) has been great as a captain, he’s led.
“It’s been great working with them all, and I feel like we’ve made progressions as a group, especially with our point of difference in attack.
“In terms of defence, and commitment, I thought we were great today throughout the whole game. There’s loads to be positive about and loads to be pleased with.
“If we come together as a group next year we’ll be further down the track and we won’t need to start from scratch.
“We’ve made massive strides together in a short amount of time, in really difficult circumstances.”
