JAMES TEDESCO says the Kangaroos are used to playing in front of hostile crowds in England and expect to have little support in the World Cup Final.
Australia have reached the decider after beating New Zealand at Elland Road.
The Kiwis received strong support amongst the crowd in Leeds, which Tedesco was unsurprised by.
“I felt that,” Tedesco said.
“We’re used to that over here. We know everything is against us. But we’ll soak it up. We expect it.”
The Kangaroos’ captain described the classic semi-final against the Kiwis as like a State of Origin contest.
“It had an Origin feel about it,” Tedesco admitted.
“It was fast, end-to-end footy. It was an eighty-minute game. We’ve had comfortable wins up until this game, but that was a Test match and we had to dig deep. I’m proud of the boys for how we did it, especially in the second half.
“We didn’t start how we wanted to, but the way we fought back and worked for each other in that second half was really pleasing.”
The fullback says the Aussies will learn a lot from the tough semi-final victory.
“We will enjoy this win,” he said.
“We have a week’s preparation for recovery and to get ready. We’ll learn a lot from this game. We dug deep, but we could have been better in some areas. We’ll take those lessons and be ready for another tough challenge.”
