England’s disastrous Rugby League World Cup campaign is all but over after struggling to a 34-12 win over Papua New Guinea — nowhere near enough to put themselves in the mix to progress to the semi-finals.
Brian McDermott’s side rushed out to a 22-0 lead in their bid to put on a big score in the hope that they could still finish ahead of Samoa in the combined Pool B and C standings.
Instead the Kumuls fired up and England fell apart in the second half, committing error after error in the scramble to put on points.
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PNG lit up Wollongong with tries to Dudley Dotoi and Gairo Voro dragging them back into a contest opened up by England’s failures.
“I know it would be painful for the dyed in the wool England fan but for neutral observers it’s fun to watch,” Andrew Voss said on Channel 7.
“Effort being rewarded by Papua New Guinea.
“England’s lost their way. Errors, ill discipline, penalties, set restarts.
“What’s embarrassing from England is 50 seagulls have set up base at the northern end because England aren’t getting there.”
English great James Graham said the second half was “frustrating to watch” while Clive Churchill medallist Ryan Papenhuyzen said it was a damning performance.
“The belief from the Papua New Guinea side is so evident. It’s nearly like England feel like they’ve lost,” Papenhuyzen said.
“I know they need to win by a big margin but they seem like they’ve given up.”
Harry Smith kicked out on the full to fill what Voss described as “a bingo card of errors”.
But England did hit back — albeit after a messy play — through Morgan Knowles in the 68th minute, before Mikey Lewis nabbed a consolation try in the dying seconds.
“It’s been tough to watch England play this half. You can just see them searching for a feeling,” Roosters premiership coach Trent Robinson said.
England are still in with a mathematical shot of progressing to the semi-finals but would need Tonga to destroy Samoa by at least 47 points on Sunday night.
“I just can’t see Tonga winning by that many points unfortunately,” Graham said.
England captain George Williams said he was feeling “pretty rubbish” about the situation.
“It was good the first 20 then the wheels kind of fell off, too many errors. Credit to PNG, they didn’t stop fighting. But not good enough today and disappointing for us even though we won,” he said.
“Obviously we’re relying on Tonga to do a more than massive job now. We’re in with a chance, but a very slim one.”
Graham noted England were not helped by limited preparations while Robinson said it was a mixed bag through their three games in the tournament.
“They’ve played a really good style of footy. I like the way that they’ve played, the system’s been good, they’ve been playing to the strengths of their back-rowers, the halves have been playing good footy, their defence has been good,” Robinson said.
“The mentality of them not to arrest the game tonight, or to overcome Tonga in the first game, it isn’t about the style of play.
“It’s the leaders on the field being able to be calm in different moments and arrest different periods of game. You can make errors for five minutes but you can’t make them for 55.”
PNG’s retiring skipper Rhyse Martin said he told the team he was “so proud of their effort” after bouncing back from last week’s 64-6 loss to Samoa in Port Moresby.
“We can go out of this tournament with our heads high,” he said.
“We dug in there, we turned up and we turned it into a game. We were nearly there, close to a win.”
