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Monday, 31 October 2011

McNamara Preparing for Aussies


Coach Steve McNamara says England must approach their Four Nations clash with Australia at Wembley on 5 November differently to the 42-4 win over Wales.

Australia, defeated in the 2010 final, beat defending champions New Zealand 26-12 in their own tournament opener.

"We will need a different mindset," McNamara said.

"We can't wait and our preparation is already under way. The boys are recovering and those who are not playing are training hard."

Australia coach Tim Sheens criticised the performance of English referee Phil Bentham in the wake of his team's win over New Zealand, describing the match as "probably the slowest game I have seen for a long time".

But McNamara had little truck with the comments of his Kangaroos counterpart.

The former Bradford boss insisted his team would attempt to dictate the pace of play against Australia.

"We'll focus on what we're doing and the speed we're trying to play at," added McNamara.

"We've had this numerous times. Every time we go in to a tournament we get called 'whinging Poms', but it's us that seem to sit and listen to other people whinging about everything that goes on."

Wigan full-back Sam Tomkins, who scored three tries on his international debut against Wales in 2009, went one better as England ran out easy winners against the Dragons at Leigh.

"He's been in that form for Wigan and he brought those boots with him," said McNamara.

"He's a very potent player and he looked very sharp.

"I know Sam scored four tries and will grab the headlines, but Kevin Sinfield controlled the game. You could probably hear his talk and the influence he has on the rest of the team is enormous.