NEW England coach Brian McDermott has a plan he believes can bring World Cup success this year – and while it doesn’t involve bettering holders Australia at their own game, it could include Leeds Rhinos playmaker Jake Connor.

Unperturbed by the tourists’ 3-0 Ashes success in this country last autumn, when Connor’s omission by McDermott’s predecessor Shaun Wane was a major talking point, the former highly-successful Leeds coach, now on the staff at NRL club Gold Coast Titans, a role he will combine with the England job, said: “I have a plan which is specific and accurate to the players I have available.

“Australia’s dominance is clear, and the international game is growing and getting better with the strength of Tonga, Samoa, PNG and Fiji and other emerging nations.

“But Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 (to become the unified world heavyweight boxing champion) and knew that he wouldn’t win by trading punches, so had to do something different.

“He got the job done, and I believe the gap (with Australia) is bridgeable. I have a plan I believe will work but it needs coaching into the players in the time we have available.

“We need a good bond with each other, I need to speak to players, which I will be doing, and through dialogue throughout this year we will get closer to that.”

Asked about Connor, who last represented England in 2018 (he played for Great Britain on the tour to New Zealand and PNG the year after), McDermott said: “He is in my plans for sure.

“I think the rhetoric and narrative around him has been tremendously unfair. He is a great player and a gamebreaker, no doubt about that.”

McDermott, 56, has initially taken the role to the end of the World Cup. He coached USA in the 2017 tournament and was on the Fiji staff for the 2022 version.

He believes that experience, along with his spells in charge of Harlequins (now London Broncos), Toronto Wolfpack and Featherstone Rovers, will help him tackle the challenges of leading England, with the time available to work with the players highly limited.

“There’s a huge amount of privilege to do the job,” he added. “I applied and went through process laid out by RFL, which was lengthy, but good to do.

“Being (based) in Australia does pose some challenges, but I already watch a lot of Super League games and (with modern technology) I can view as much footage as I want, see what I need to see, and talk to players as much as I need to.

“I’ll be ripping into this job straight away.”