BROKEN BAD
Burgess injury adds to the England misery Down Under
ENGLAND insist they can cope with Sam Burgess’ absence in coming weeks after the talismanic forward limped out of their opening World Cup defeat.
side. On Burgess, he said: “Sam’s done a medial by the look of it – that’s three to four weeks.
“Sam’s always going to be a loss to any team. But we managed for 60 minutes without him tonight and we didn’t seem to lose a lot of momentum.”
Winger Jermaine McGillvary – England’s only try scorer and best performer – also praised his team-mates’ response after Burgess’ exit.
McGillvary said: “We lost Sam who is probably one of the big icons in our team, early in the game. But we defended our try- line like warriors, especially our right edge, where Elliott Whitehead and Kall Watkins went through a lot of tackling.
“It’s not good to start on a loss but we can build on this, and if we get them again we can do the business.”
McGillvary racked up over 200 metres with five tackle busts and three clean breaks, but still insisted there is more to come from him in coming weeks.
He said: “I thought I was decent in the first half but a bit lazy in the second.
“I didn’t think I was as good as I could have been – I let Jonny Lomax down a couple of times on getting back.
“I reckon there’s another 40 or 50 per cent in me. I’m getting there and I can contribute to the team a lot more as the tournament goes on.”
After McGillvary opened the scoring, Australia took control with tries to Matt Gillett and the outstanding Billy Slater – and should have been further ahead at the break.
But England improved after the restart without being able to find a way through, with the lively James Roby and winger Ryan Hall going close before Dugan’s late clincher.
McGillvary added: “Wayne said the effort was outstanding but some of the execution still wasn’t good enough and there were individual errors there.
“But he said it’s still early days – he’s been part of World Cup-winning teams and he says it’s not won in the first game, it is won further down the line.”
Burgess was forced off shortly before half-time despite initially attempting to play on, and is set to miss three to four weeks.
That rules him out of group games against France and Lebanon, but could mean he returns for the quarterfinal stage.
England took the game to Australia in his absence after trailing 10-4 at the break, but failed to find a way through before a late penalty and breakaway Josh Dugan try gave the score an unfair look.
Coach Wayne Bennett could see clear improvements from the previous defeat to Australia in last year’s Four Nations, but still lamented the basic errors that plague the national