England not there yet, says Bennett
PROGRESS has been made but England still have some way to go before coach Wayne Bennett is satisfied.
Just days out from their World Cup semi-final against Tonga in Auckland, England have few problems injury-wise, with Kevin Brown and Sam Burgess both on track to feature at Mt Smart Stadium.
Brown was knocked out in England’s 36-6 quarter-final win over Papua New Guinea on Sunday but Bennett said he was “extremely confident” the stand-off would be good to go.
Burgess, returning from a knee ligament strain, tweaked
an ankle against the Kumuls but Bennett says he doesn’t expect that to be an issue.
And while England weren’t at their best against Papua New Guinea, he’s confident they’ll lift against Tonga.
Bennett was pleased with England’s defence and build- up play against the Kumuls, but says his team lacked discipline with ball in hand and had a poor completion rate.
“The ball control’s not exactly where I’d like it,” he said.
“There’s been glimpses of it, there’ve been halves of it, but we’ve got to do it for a full game. We’ve just got to get our handling better, that’s our major concern.”
England will be tackling a Tongan outfit high on confidence after toppling New Zealand 28-22 in pool play, although they struggled to shrug off Lebanon 24-22 in the quarter-finals.