A narrow squeak for England against Papua New Guinea in Townsville at the 2008 World Cup was uncomfortable and a harbinger of grimmer times to come. Defeat by Italy in Salford this time last year was humiliating and the worst possible way to finalise preparations for another World Cup campaign. Those closely involved with Great Britain’s 1999 Tri-Series squad still twitch nervously when anybody mentions the words Burleigh Bears, a bunch of Queensland part-timers who ran the Lions alarmingly close in a warm-up fixture.
Given the memories of these and other rude awakenings for the national team in recent years, there will be a fair few England rugby league followers preparing to watch the team’s Four Nations opener against Samoa through their fingers and from behind the sofa on Saturday morning, and scoffing at warnings against complacency. It will be England’s first Test against Samoa, one of the Pacific island nations who have finally begun to translate their growing influence on club rugby league to international level.
They qualified for this Four Nations debut by beating Fiji in a mid-season international in Sydney, a result that provided some revenge for a 22-4 defeat against the Bati in last year’s World Cup quarter-final – after they had given New Zealand a scare in one of the most rousing encounters of the tournament. They have lost a couple of key figures, notably the brilliant full-back Anthony Milford, who was named in Australia’s training squad for the Four Nations, and their World Cup captain, Sia Soliola, who is taking a break after signing off from St Helens with a Grand Final triumph before joining Canberra Raiders next year. In addition, three members of their current squad were not considered because of their involvement in a brawl at a Brisbane nightclub last weekend.
However, there is still considerable National Rugby League pedigree in the 17 selected by Matt Parish, an Australian coach who did not last long at Salford but has top-level experience himself, having assisted Ricky Stuart with the New South Wales State of Origin team. Parish has been playing up his team’s underdog status all week but he will quietly fancy their chances against an England side who have had no time for a warm-up fixture with less than a fortnight to recover from the Super League Grand Final.
The absence of the captain, Sean O’Loughlin, with the thigh injury he suffered at Old Trafford means that applies to only the four Wigan players selected by Steve McNamara for the opener, with the Grand Final winners St Helens not represented in the squad.
It is to be hoped, however, that the positive vibes from the team’s training camp on the Gold Coast are not exposed as hot air once the big-hitting Samoan defenders start trying to disrupt the new playmaking quartet of the half-backs Gareth Widdop and Matty Smith, Josh Hodgson at hooker and Joe Westerman at loose forward.
“It will be a very proud day,” said Westerman, a 24-year-old who will be one of four debutants after a better second season in a struggling Hull team, but is also one of four Castleford products in this England side alongside Michael Shenton, Brett Ferres and the interchange hooker Daryl Clark.
England should have too much class and nous for the Samoans and a resounding victory would fuel optimism that this could finally be England’s time to secure a meaningful international success, given the absence of several key figures from the Australia and New Zealand teams, who will square off in the main event at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, when an attendance of more than 50,000 is expected.
Bitter recent experience demands caution, with a particularly slippery banana skin to avoid first.
