WELL it was worse than I thought – and that 30-12 defeat by Tonga (I predicted 28-16) means England need to rack up big wins against France and Papua New Guinea and hope other results go a certain way to have any chance of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.

To think we probably won’t make the last four is heartbreaking and reflects what I’ve been saying for years.

While Tonga, Samoa, Fiji (and the way they played against Cook Islands made me think we wouldn’t beat them) and Papua New Guinea (who we may well struggle to see off in the final group game), have all improved significantly this century, we have regressed.

That’s down to the deterioration of our pathways system and poor handling of the amateur game and the number of journeymen overseas players flooding into our competition, which has led to a drop in standards.

I thought Brian McDermott’s England were a more attractive watch than Shaun Wane’s, and moved the ball better, but with such limited preparation (and that needs to be looked into), there were some issues with fluency and simply too many errors.

While players from the NRL are used to major intensity week in, week out, those from Super League and French competition aren’t. It’s why the Pacific sides have got better, while England and France have got worse.

It’s going to take time to sort out, if we have the desire and means needed, and the fear is that with more of the way things are currently, in anther 20 years, we will become a tier-two Rugby League nation.

I think England will comfortably beat France on Saturday – my prediction is 64-10 – and hopefully get past PNG, although that’s not certain, but we will miss out on the semis.

Aussies by the skin of their teeth

LUCKY, lucky, lucky…

I’m not talking Kylie Minogue but that terrific opening match of the tournament, because fortune was certainly favouring her compatriots.

Australia needed the right breaks at the right moments to edge that 24-22 victory over New Zealand, whose formidable forwards, led by James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota and Isaiah Papali’i, lived up to their billing by mauling the Kangaroos’ pack for most of a game which always held your attention.

It attracted more than 40,000, the highest-Test match crowd in Sydney for 50 years, and provided everything needed for a great sporting contest – skill, physicality, intensity, tension, uncertainty over the outcome and drama. 

The Kiwis should really have won it, but at those stages when they were 6-0, 16-10 and 22-16 ahead, they weren’t able to extend the gap and gain that valuable bit of breathing space.

That allowed Australia to do what we know Australia can do – having hung in there, come up with those telling blows, first through Reece Walsh, then hat-trick hero Jack Bostock – and what an international debut the Dolphins flyer enjoyed.

They certainly weren’t at their best, but they so often find a way, and now it’s 19 successive wins in World Cup games.

You certainly have to fancy Australia to add at least three more to that list by beating Fiji in Brisbane on Sunday, Cook Islands in Townsville the following Saturday, then whoever they’d meet in the semi-finals.

As much as I hope and dream that England can make it, I expect an Australia-New Zealand rematch in the final in Brisbane on Sunday, November 15.

And I think we saw enough to suggest that the Kiwis could beat the Kangaroos, certainly if they take the lessons from Thursday’s memorable meeting, which I know Stacey Jones will have.

As for Australia coach Kevin Walters, he will have seen that as a halfback pairing, Cameron Munster (whose kicking was excellent) and Tom Dearden works a lot better than Munster and Mitchell Moses.

That became clear when Moses was forced off by his calf problem early in the second half and Dearden came on to reprise the Queensland Origin partnership of 2025, Tom missing out this year due to injury.

The one disappointment of the opener was the sight of Kalyn Ponga’s first outing for New Zealand since he defected from Australia being cut short by that arm injury.

His continued absence would be a blow, not just for his team but the tournament as a whole.

The battle of the rival fullbacks provided a compelling subplot, with both Ponga and Walsh being central to a clash in which big players produced big moments.

How will the new Queensland coach Darius Boyd choose between them at Origin level in 2027? What a great problem to have!

Given the way referees come under the spotlight, a special mention should go to Adam Gee, who was first class.

Learning from criticism

I’D LIKE to say thanks to Terry Birkinhead from Newton-le-Willows for his feedback via the League Express Mailbag on my column of October 5 where I wrote about Warrington’s halfback pairing of George Williams and young Ewan Irwin in the Grand Final defeat by Wakefield.

Terry said I had singled out an 18-year-old from a “lacklustre” team and that my comment that Irwin didn’t provide sufficient support for Williams was uncalled for, and he is fully entitled to his opinion.

Terry asked how I would have felt about such an observation at that stage of my career.

Well at 18, I made my full Great Britain debut against France (in early 1984), became the youngest-ever Lions tourist and played in, and scored tries, in two Ashes Tests in Australia (I had just turned 19 by the third).

I was also the top try-scorer, with 38, over both divisions in 1983-84 after signing my first professional contract with Hull FC.

I can honestly say that when anyone criticised me, I listened, decided if they had a point and used it as motivation to get better.

I hope Ewan takes that approach, because there’s no doubt he has the attributes to develop into a top-class international player.

I wasn’t really criticising his ability, more his role, and I think Sam Burgess should have given him more responsibility, especially in the early stages of the match, because that might have taken Wakefield by surprise and forced them to alter their own approach, which was clearly to target Williams and, as Warrington’s main organiser, close him down.

We’ll never know, but as I say, I hope Ewan will learn from his experience and use it to his own benefit as his career progresses.

And if Sam would like me to mentor Ewan and give some advice from a former halfback who knows what it’s like to be in the spotlight as a teenager, and get some flak, I’d be happy to oblige.

Meanwhile Williams’ return to the NRL with The Dolphins on a two-year deal has been confirmed, and I can’t blame him for having a second bite at the cherry Down Under after his 18-month stint at Canberra Raiders.

That ended on a sour note and maybe he thinks he has something to prove, which I hope he does, because at 31, he still has plenty in him.

He has a tough act to follow in Kodi Nikorima, who is moving to St George Illawarra Dragons after being part of an effective partnership with Isaiya Katoa, while Kristian Woolf also has Brad Schneider, who had that spell with Hull KR, in the reckoning.

Ewan Irwin will have a new partner in Brodie Croft, but I’m not sure he’s the right man to help Warrington to success. For the first two of his three years at Leeds, I thought he was pretty ordinary.