England’s win over Papua New Guinea might seem like another lopsided score in a tournament that’s been full of them, but the host nation is shaping as the team that can put the magic into the World Cup.
The hosts might have run out 46-6 winners, but this was one of the first games of the tournament where the magnitude and prestige of a World Cup really shone through.
There is treasure to be found among the blowout matches in front of small crowds at sleepy grounds, but you do have to dig for it. There was none of that here – everything was right in front of you.
It seemed important — even before Catherine, Princess of Wales, arrived to greet the teams in the minutes before kick-off to give the DW Stadium a brief regal air — and that continued as England tore the game open to lead 38-0 at half-time.
Papua New Guinea isn’t quite as star-studded as England’s other high-profile victim Samoa, but they’re tough and hard and apart from one or two players at the very end of their squad they’re full-time professionals, with NRL and Super League players aplenty.
Since the introduction of the PNG Hunters to the Queensland Cup eight years ago they’ve improved out of sight – the last time they played an England or Great Britain team, they beat them. This isn’t Greece or Jamaica, they aren’t just happy to be here.
But you wouldn’t know judging on this one.
England was so brutal it seemed as though what they were doing out there on the pitch was surely against some ancient law as they played with as much confidence, skill and clarity of purpose as any team of recent years.
Tom Burgess was dominant early as Papua New Guinea had no answer for his size, power and mobility in the middle of the field.
Halfback George Williams continued his fine tournament as he tortured the PNG back three with his kicking game and picked on centre Nene McDonald like he owed him money.
Even as the scoreline piled up the crowd lost their heads every time Dom Young, the breakout star of the tournament, touched the ball and unless the British government gets its act together Victor Radley could well be swept into Number 10 Downing Street on the back of people power.
The challenge next week, against Samoa or Tonga, will be greater again, to say nothing of what might await in the final against Australia or New Zealand.
The England campaign rolled on at the Rugby League World Cup with a thumping win over Papua New Guinea. Can they go all the way? (Reuters: Action Images / Ed Sykes)
But there is a certain feeling around this England team, something that feels a little bit like destiny and English rugby league needs something like that. It needs to be chosen by providence for something special. It needs to have a dream come true.
Men have grown old waiting for England to sit on top of the world again. They haven’t beaten Australia since 2006, they haven’t won a series against the Kangaroos since 1978 and they haven’t won a World Cup since 1972.
Rugby League is perpetually short of money in its country of origin and claws for a cultural relevance that extends beyond its traditional heartlands. When you read or hear about those places, where rugby league first began in 1895, they’re just words on a page.
But when you’re there, when you see clubs that are older than most of the other countries in this World Cup and hear about the old grounds that stood for a century before they were bulldozed and turned into shopping centre carparks or housing estates, it’s easy to understand why the game in England can feel so local, so ground-based, so tribal and protective of its history and heritage that it can feel like it’s from another time.
Tommy Makinson scored 30 points for England against Papua New Guinea – five tries and as many successful kicks for goal.(AP: PA / Tim Goode)
That gives the sport its rich flavour, but its greatest strength can lead to weakness. The future is risky and expensive and uncertain, but the past is known and warm and comforting and it’s easy to spend time revelling in who you were to avoid the question of who you are.
It has been a long time since an English team stood above the rest and the times since then have been so hard, so no wonder the game retreated into the past and grabbed the things that were familiar and held them as tightly as they could. When you don’t have silverware you still have each other.
The game can survive on the traditional ground for a while yet because its roots reach down so deep. Here, rugby league is something passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, and even if the money dries up it will take generations for the truest believers to give it up, such is the passion for the game that exists within those who are keeping it going.
But the future can be greater still, and once you get all that it’s impossible to overstate what a World Cup victory would mean for England. Because that is the kind of thing that spreads beyond the towns and cities of the north and across the rest of the country.
You don’t have to be a rugby league person or even a sports person to understand the meaning of a World Cup, the prestige and honour that comes with the title of world champions.
That’s why the crowds are building, and the drums beat loud when the English run out. If they make the final, they’ll have a nation lifting them up on the way there and all the shortcomings of this tournament – like the lack of competitive games and the disappointing crowds – will be forgotten in the gleam of the trophy as Sam Tomkins hoists it high.
There is still a long way to go. Shaun Wane’s side will have to do something no England team in the past half-century has managed if they’re to go all the way and they could win their semi-final by a thousand points and everybody would still tip Australia to triumph at Old Trafford in two week’s time.
It was a grim English day in Wigan for such a great English performance. The cold and the rain sank over the stadium all day, until the final minutes of the match when a rainbow poked through the clouds and shone down on the rapturous fans as they raised their heads to the sky.
There’s a metaphor in there somewhere, maybe a bit of a trite one. But what’s done in the dark can be brought to the light and England is beginning to shine.
Source:: ABC News
