England put a marker down, but can they really compete with Australia and New Zealand?
How boss is Dom Young?
The Wakefield-born Newcastle Knights winger looked an
exciting prospect in England’s 50-0 warm-up fixture against Fiji, and he did
not disappoint in Saturday’s 60-6 hammering of Samoa.
Young’s first try demonstrated fleetness of foot and serious
agility. Some misery-arse on Facebook called it “running into open space”. Tell
that to the Samoan defenders left sprawled in his wake.
His second was a display of pure agility that defied Young’s
6ft 7in frame – like a slimmer version of Lesley Vainikolo.
Not that anyone in an England shirt had a bad game. Among
several reasons to be cheerful was the eight different try scorers, with all
four of the three-quarter line and both half backs getting in on the action.
Kallum Watkins’ second-half score, to choose just one, resulted from a simple
but impressive bit of team play.
Another cause for optimism was that, in a commanding position mid-way through the second half, England stepped up a gear rather than easing off – the instinct of a winning side.
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So can England go on to win the whole thing? It’s impossible not to dream about it – but it is surely too soon for any outlandish predictions.
Australia
and New Zealand eased to victory in their opening games against Fiji and
Lebanon respectively. Both gave the impression that they were only warming up –
especially Australia who rested Nathan Cleary, Liam Martin and Isaah Yeo from
NRL Premiers Penrith Panthers.
The most likely scenario at this stage is that whoever comes out on top of a probable semi-final between the Kangaroos and the Kiwis at Elland Road on Friday 11 November will be world champions.
But it would also be foolish to rule out England, who scarcely put a foot wrong (only Jack Welsby’s wayward pass comes to mind) against a Samoa side that Phil Gould said they could not beat and Jon Wilkin tipped as outsiders to win the whole thing.
Years of disappointment hang over us – Watkins being ankle tapped in 2017, Kevin Sinfield rushing out the line in 2013, and the disaster that was 2008. Let’s be optimistic – but let’s be quiet about it.
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Rugby
league has an unfortunate tendency to ensure that the main talking point is
always something that shows our game in a bad light.
In the grand history of rugby league moans, it must be conceded that the complaints about ticket prices and consequent low attendances are not unreasonable.
(Though there have been some ridiculous shouts – from the bloke condemning the World Cup organisers for staging a fixture at Warrington on the same day Manchester City were playing at Anfield, to the man objecting to the price of watching Papua New Guinea v Tonga at St Helens on the grounds that he would be sitting in his “season-ticket seat”.)
It’s a great aspiration that international fixtures should be considered more prestigious – and therefore more expensive – than domestic fixtures, but that’s just not yet where we’re at.
Regardless of the right and wrongs, however, it’s just a shame that after a weekend of decent action, despite an emphatic win for England, and with all the great stories to be told – such as the Greek journey to the World Cup – social media is once again abuzz with complaints, arguments and recriminations.
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