England head coach Steve McNamara insists his side are on the “cusp” of something special after several years of near misses ahead of this autumn’s international programme.
England came desperately close to reaching the World Cup final two years ago before Shaun Johnson’s last-gasp try sank them at Wembley, whilst they also failed to make the final of last year’s Four Nations with one win from their three games.
Yet McNamara believes the structures put in place have helped England to develop, and he thinks something special is about to happen – potentially this year in their three-Test series against New Zealand.
“Our overall programme and the development of us as a group and the strong two-team mentality that we spoke a lot about – being really passionate about your club but England too – I’m pleased with how that has worked,” he said.
“We are on the cusp at the minute.
“We’ve been really, really close to achieving something special in the last couple of tournaments and, hopefully, we’ll get across the line this time.”
