Cup over for Ed but Betts ready for last-eight tie

● WIDNES VIKINGS player Ed Chamberlain’s World Cup adventure is over after his Ireland side were knocked out of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup at the group stage.

The Irish actually won two of their three Group C matches including thrashing Wales 34-6 in Perth last Sunday.

Chamberlain played at centre in all of Ireland’s games and acquitted himself well which should bolster the 21 year-olds chances of getting regular first team rugby in 2018.

But in the end it was Papua New Guinea who progressed to the knockout stages as winners of Group C and they face England in a quarter-final tie in Melbourne this Sunday.

England confirmed their own last eight place with a 36-6 win over France in their final Group A game which meant they finished second behind Australia.

After a dominant first half showing, England failed to fully capitalise after the break against the French.

Widnes boss Denis Betts who is assistant to England head coach Wayne Bennett, is looking for further improvement.

He said: “Overall, our completion rate wasn’t good enough, our ball control was poor and our decision making and options let us down in the second half. “It wasn’t good enough in that second half. “We showed a lack of focus and maybe were a bit over-confident at times. That said, you have to highlight how clinical we were at the beginning of the game. Some of our attacking skill was outstanding, but we need to be able to do that for 80 minutes. We had an idea of where we were going and it’s thrown up a couple of different options.”

Having shown up well in the France game, former Widnes skipper Kevin Brown has been named in the England side to take on PNG this week. Brown, who now plies his trade for Warrington, is set to partner Castleford’s Luke Gale in the halves with St George-Illawara’s Gareth Widdop taking the full-back role against the Kumuls. ● Widnes have announced that the deadline for Early Bird discounts on Stronghold Memberships for 2018 is now November 30.