Rugby League World Cup: England have 'more to come' despite France win
- Published
Two wins from two is the exactly the way we wanted to start this Rugby League World Cup with England.
France were beaten 42-18 at Bolton in front of nearly 24,000 fans, to follow up the win over Samoa and put us top of our group.
But the positive thing as a team is that we scored 42 points in what was a six out of 10 performance, if not less. There's still a lot more to come from us. We can be better in certain areas.
France gave us a good test. We were a little bit annoyed how we finished the first half, having started really well and showed how good we can be.
Credit to them, though - they rattled us a little bit for a period and they scored two tries to make it 18-12 at the break, but we didn't feel they deserved to be a try away at half-time.
That was us causing ourselves some problems around the ruck and good teams do get you.
Thankfully we put things right in the second half, putting on four tries - including a flying finish and intercept double from Dom Young - to take the game away from them.
Highlights: England comfortably beat France to all but secure top spot in group
We know the quality we've got, and it's just being consistent - we know if we want to do something special, we have to be good for 80 minutes.
No disrespect to France, but when we play against a side such as Australia, New Zealand or Tonga, we know they will punish us, even more so than the French.
I earned myself a nice meal for winning player of the match. There are probably a couple of the lads I'd have put before me but I'm not going to turn it down! I was really happy to get it.
It was also a big day for the lads who got to make their Test debuts, such as Salford's Marc Sneyd and Andy Ackers.
Shaun Wane spoke about it to us afterwards, and said: "Let's not forget it's special." Even though it wasn't perfect, we still won a Test match and lads had made their debuts - it's still a day to remember.
We know we're on the cusp of the quarter-finals, and we've spoke about it all because we're dreaming, but we can't think too much about that with a group game still to play.
We just want to go into the knockout rounds full on confidence.
Back to the grind after family time
England's squad at the 2021 Rugby League World Cup is a tight-knit group, led by head coach Shaun Wane
We're back in camp now, and it's been pretty chilled. We had a meal together on the Monday night and a bit of recovery with the pool and sauna, a chance to catch up with the lads and find out what they've been up to on a day off.
The facilities are like something you get at a spa day - though we are working hard! We're very fortunate to be in the squad. The facilities are great, we get fed well and we can't complain that we're living the dream.
I just enjoy the breakfast, because you're ready for breakfast every morning and there's avocado, bacon and eggs, whatever you want. They've been really good.
Where we're staying, they have also had the Crystal Palace football team and Harlequins' rugby union side staying here, so it speaks for itself.
England have been good with us being away from home, as they've set up a family day this week.
Anyone you choose to welcome down can come down, watch us train and get to know us all as a group off the field as well as on it.
We still have to train, but they can come down, see us, have some lunch and mingle after. It should be a good day.
It creates a family as a team really. Everybody is involved, it's a tight-knit group, and it creates conversation.
We have a real good laugh. Chris Baron - our conditioner Bubble - you'll have seen him on the team song videos dancing about.
He's unbelievable for the group, making everybody laugh. I've heard all his jokes before as he works with us at Warrington, but they're still pretty funny. He's a good bloke and the joker of the group.
Greece development huge for rugby league
George Williams' ex-Warrington teammate Billy Magoulias is in the Greece squad
There's one more group game for us on Saturday, when we play Greece at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. We can't take them lightly.
We're on about setting standards; we dropped below them last weekend, and obviously we want to put a good performance on.
We hope we can put some points on, but most importantly, we want to get our processes right. The points will come on the back of that.
It's massive that teams such as Greece and Jamaica are here at the World Cup. I saw the video of the fans back in Athens celebrating one of their tries in the pub, fans jumping up and down.
It just shows what it means to people. It's good for the sport too - a couple of the nations here have never been at the World Cup before, and it's progressing the sport in different countries.
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