England have kept faith with the 17 players who beat New Zealand on Saturday for tomorrow’s Gillette Four Nations final against Australia at Elland Road. Kevin Sinfield is retained at hooker, rather than his customary loose-forward position, after his man-of-the-match performance there in the 20-12 defeat of the Kiwis.
After a bitterly disappointing World Cup campaign in Australia last year, Sinfield was convinced that his international career was over. “I wasn’t sure I’d get the chance to represent England again,” he said. “Thankfully I have, and this is the first time I feel I’ve really been wanted as part of the national team and been allowed to play how I play for my club.
“That’s been a big thing for me this series. When I’ve played at this level before, they’ve asked to me to do things I’ve perhaps not been comfortable with. By freeing me up a little, it perhaps helps how we’re playing as a team and frees Kyle [Eastmond] and Sam [Tomkins] up at half back to look for opportunities.”
Sinfield’s vision and service at dummy half laid the attacking platform against New Zealand and the Leeds Rhinos captain has been pinpointed by Cameron Smith, the Australia hooker, as the danger man. “He’s a pretty good guide to their team,” Smith said. “If he’s playing well, usually their whole team’s playing well. When they’re going well through the middle, that’s when their guys out wide are dangerous.”
Tony Smith, the England coach, feels that Australia’s limited knowledge of Eastmond and Tomkins, both 20, can benefit his side. Asked whether Johnathan Thurston’s blank-faced response this week to a question about Eastmond, his scrum half opposite number, could be taken as a sign of arrogance, Smith said: “Possibly, or ignorance — one or the other, or a combination of both.
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“They won’t let that bother them. They’ll go about their business like we have seen the last couple of weeks. Hopefully they [Australia] won’t know much about them before Saturday and they might get a few surprises then.”
Jamie Peacock, the England captain and one of only two survivors, with Adrian Morley, of Great Britain’s 44-4 hammering by Australia in the 2004 Tri-Nations final at Elland Road, is confident there will be no repeat of that lopsided score. “We came into that game as favourites,” he said. “We are going into this one as underdogs, which is great. There’s none of the pressure put on us five years ago. The Aussies came up with a great performance and we didn’t deliver.”
Darren Lockyer, the Australia captain and tormentor on that occasion, also expects a much closer encounter. “It would be nice from our point of view [if it was similar] but what we did that night was pretty special,” he said. “It would be difficult to repeat that.”
England team: S Briscoe; P Fox, C Bridge, M Shenton, R Hall; S Tomkins, K Eastmond; A Morley, K Sinfield, J Graham, J Peacock, G Ellis, S Burgess. Interchange: J Roby, E Crabtree, B Westwood, J Wilkin.