England said all the right things. They looked the part. They told us they were ready.

"We're almost there… I don't think we've ever been more ready than this," said England captain George Williams.

"It's the best England set-up I've been a part of," insisted Williams again, before kick-off.

"We'll be hyped this weekend, but we need to be smart. It's going to be a smash-up," were the words of England head coach Shaun Wane.

And then the game began.

Australia - at times sloppy, without their captain from the ninth minute and far from their ruthless best - still won comfortably. The Kangaroos weren't brilliant; they didn't need to be.

As Paul Gallen put it bluntly: "I didn't think Australia were great… England were horrible."

Phil Gould went further: "I didn't really expect any better.

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