Well the World Cup is fast approaching and at this stage all you can hear is the voice of a thousand Poms claiming they are in with a real shot of winning the World Cup.
With an easy win over France under their belts, England’s confidence is sky high, and the script of every major international sporting competition England has participated in over the last 50 years seems to be playing out once again.
The problem England has is the fact that its so insular about Rugby League outside of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Australia has been gearing towards the World Cup quietly over the last 3 years, blooding young players and looking at future combinations. If there is one thing you can be assured of its that Australia will be at their very best when the tournament starts.
New Zealand will be better off now that they have some actual professional coaches. They have a few players that are in poor form right now but you’d take them over England any day.
The real problem England has is with Samoa and Tonga.
Both sides will be flushed with NRL talent. Both sides will boast better outside backs than England and Tonga will actually have the best half outside of Australia in Feleti Mateo.
The NRL has seen an amazing surge of Islander talent in recent seasons. In fact 18 months ago you would have expected both Samoa and Tonga to have a couple of NRL stars, but mostly be made up of lower grade players.
Now, you can expect to see a lot of familiar faces in both sides.
Add to that the fact that Fiji will be surprisingly strong and all of a sudden England isn’t just behind Australia and New Zealand, its struggling to be one of the top four sides in the competition!
With the World Cup being played as summer approaches, you’ll find that the conditions will not suit England. Sure, they play their season during the English summer, but an English summer is a long way from an Australian summer.
Having said all that, I’m not about to set the record straight with any English fans I know. I’m going to let them go on their merry way, talking themselves up months out from the competition.
It makes their certain failure all the more sweeter.
