Even Australia would concede that it will take a special performance to suppress an energised England in the Gillette Four Nations final at Elland Road on Saturday, especially in the boiler room up front.
What a hard-working threequarter line lacks in dynamism, compared with Australia’s lacerating backs, a belligerent forward pack makes up for in spades. If England can drag the Kangaroos into the sort of arm wrestle that accounted for New Zealand on Saturday, they will at least give themselves a chance of a famous upset.
Australia will review England’s 20-12 defeat of the Kiwis, with whom the Kangaroos could only draw in their opening game of the tournament, with a degree of apprehension when it comes to halting the English juggernauts. Their possible saving grace is the probable appointment of an Australian referee in Shane Hayne, who would not tolerate the nonsense around the rucks indulged in by both sides in Huddersfield.
A slower play-the-ball suited England and New Zealand in their heavyweight clash, but no such leniency is likely to emanate from a referee in the NRL, where the tackle area is cleared more quickly. Nonetheless, for the second half of the previous weekend’s group game, England rolled over the top of Australia’s forwards, although admittedly only after their backs had put them to the sword with five bewitching tries in a 26-16 victory.
Still, just as England look with trepidation at the predatory Greg Inglis in the centre for Australia, Billy Slater’s silky incisiveness from full back and the seamless combination at half back of Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston, Australia may just envy the firepower provided by Sam Burgess, Gareth Ellis, James Graham, Jamie Peacock and the indefatigable Eorl Crabtree, whose impact off the bench galvanised the team for a second week.
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Crabtree tossed the Kiwis around, creatively offloaded and made such a nuisance of himself on his home ground that Australia are obliged to give him special attention. The Huddersfield Giant plays with an infectious smile; he cannot get enough of the red meat of international competition. That relish for the big occasion applies to the whole side, which cannot be said of England’s failed World Cup campaign a year ago.
Players who underperformed, clashing personalities and those who did not adopt Tony Smith’s work ethic were discarded by the coach. The result is a young, hungry team, one willing to learn and with an exciting future ahead, whatever the outcome against the odd-on favourites. “The southern-hemisphere big two are always favourites in our sport,” Smith said. “To beat one of them and get to the final is a feat in itself, but we’re not quite satisfied with that yet.”
Of those who survived the World Cup cull, Kevin Sinfield was perhaps most anxious to atone. The Leeds Rhinos captain has rarely replicated his club form for country. One such occasion was the opening 2001 Ashes match, when Sinfield helped to inspire a Great Britain victory in the hooking role, one that the loose forward successfully adopted again in a late switch by Smith that paid off handsomely.
New Zealand never scaled the heights they did against Australia in winning last year’s World Cup final and their all-Antipodean 20-20 draw three weeks ago, but that is because England hounded them into errors and disrupted their rhythm. Much has been made of the Kiwis’ extraordinary defence against the Kangaroos at the Twickenham Stoop; some of England’s last-ditch tackling was no less remarkable.
Apart from a brief victory chorus in the home dressing room, England were fixated on the greater task ahead. The only survivors of the most recent final against Australia, for Britain in the 2004 Tri-Nations, are Adrian Morley and Peacock, the captain, who are mindful of how levels of expectation that day were shattered by a 44-4 drubbing. “There’s no champagne yet,” the pragmatic Peacock said.