England players will spare a thought on Saturday for their former captain Kevin Sinfield, whose international career ended with a heartbreaking defeat in their previous game with New Zealand.
Steve McNamara’s side must defeat the unbeaten Kiwis by at least 10 points at Forsyth Barr Stadium to remain in contention for the following Saturday’s Four Nations final in Wellington.
There is speculation the coach’s future hinges on this result but for Sinfield, a 41-Test career came to a close when Shaun Johnson slipped past him to score at the end in last year’s World Cup semi-final at Wembley. The 33-year-old retired from internationals in September but his former team-mates hope to atone for the 20-18 defeat that ended it all.
“The progress we’ve made as a national side, it’s not just about the lads who are here now,” said Sinfield’s successor as captain, Sean O’Loughlin. “There are a lot of previous players – the likes of Kev, the likes of Jamie Peacock who have both captained the side – who have had massive inputs to it. I’m sure they’re sat at home wishing us success. And any success we can get, they’ve contributed to that.
“Definitely in the last few years, we feel like we’ve been making more of a dent in the Australians and New Zealanders than we have in the previous tours I’ve been on. But still the big thing is getting over the line and getting wins.”
The centre Kallum Watkins, a Leeds team-mate of Sinfield, said he was not sure if the utility would have continued this year in the event of qualifying for the World Cup final. “It was a heartbreaking way to lose last year, wasn’t it?” Watkins said. “And it was a sad way to end Kev’s career in internationals.
“I thought he would come here and have a go again but it’s probably in his interests to stay at club level. He wants to get his body right and stay fit. He’s one of the great role models. He’d be supportive of us doing well.”
When McNamara was reappointed at the start of this year, in a revamped arrangement which allowed him to work as an assistant at Sydney Roosters, no term was made public. Nigel Wood, the RFL chief executive, had no comment on the issue when approached this week.
For the players, vengeance against the Kiwis is not a subject about which they have been coy, with the prop Brett Ferres saying: “There is a bit of revenge there, of getting one back on them.”
The hooker Daryl Clark said: “I’m sure a few of the boys who were involved in that semi-final will still be a bit sore but there are a lot of new faces and it won’t mean a lot to some.”
Johnson will be a target. “If you can get a hold of him, I’m sure there’ll be a few little digs for him,” Ferres said. For his part, the New Zealand Warriors scrum-half said he was constantly reminded of his match-winner at Wembley by being “tagged in a few posts on Instagram”.
“I thought we were quite lucky to get away with that win and hopefully we don’t leave it down to the last minute this time,” he said. “It’s good to know that you can step up if it does get to that point but you don’t want it to get to that point.”
England have a doubt over interchange forward Tom Burgess, who suffered a twisted ankle in training on Wednesday, while McNamara has reserved the right to change his nominated lineup. A crowd of 24,000 is expected at the indoor venue.
On Sunday, Australia host Samoa in Wollongong in the final round-robin match.
New Zealand v England, Four Nations, Dunedin, live BBC2 , 6.30am Saturday
View all comments >
comments
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.
This discussion is closed for comments.
We’re doing some maintenance right now. You can still read comments, but please come back later to add your own.
Commenting has been disabled for this account (why?)