England lose World Cup opener to Kangaroos and could be without injured Burgess for four weeks

England rugby league coach Wayne Bennett insists the injury to Sam Burgess will not derail his side’s World Cup hopes. The South Sydney Rabbitohs forward came off after 35 minutes of England’s 18-4 defeat by Australia in their tournament opener in Melbourne after succumbing to the injury he sustained in a tackle from Kangaroos second rower Matt Gillett.

Bennett has sustained knee medial ligament damage, ruling him out until just before the quarter-finals, which start on 18 November.

England have two more group games, against Lebanon and France, before entering the knockout stages.

“Sam’s done a medial by the look of it, that’s three to four weeks,” Bennett said. “We’ve a quality footy team here. 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.”

England pushed the holders all the way in an enthralling opener before conceding eight points in the last five minutes.

The result means England will now face a likely semi-final against New Zealand.

England winger Jermaine Mcgillvary opened the scoring after only four minutes.

The Kangaroos got their first try on 22 minutes through second rower Matt Gillett before he provided the final pass seven minutes later for Billy Slater to jink his way over. Smith kicked one conversion as the hosts led 10-4 at the break.

The game was finally settled five minutes from the end when Smith kicked the goal that opened up a two-score lead before centre Josh Dugan scored Australia’s third try.