Burgess back for England

ENGLAND are relieved in more ways than one to have talisman Sam Burgess available for their Rugby League World Cup quarter- final against Papua New Guinea.

Burgess sat out the group games wins over Lebanon and France after sustaining a knee injury in the tournament opening loss to Australia.

But the 28- year- old star forward is raring to go at AAMI Park on Sunday with his teammates grateful he will be able to take out his aggression on the playing field rather than at training.

Halfback Luke Gale said Burgess had been a handful in his first full training session on Tuesday since suffering the injury last month.

“He’s a big character and the boys miss him but he was full- on in that session,” Gale said.

“He whacked a couple of boys then which they didn’t take too kindly to. He knocked Kev Brown’s head off.”

Burgess said England needed to be more consistent if they wanted to snap the Kumuls’ three- game winning streak and advance to the semis.