Knives come out after early fumble

an ominous sign that Britain’s biggest sporting event since the London Olympics could be a damp squib for the locals and a time of fury for English newspapers.

It is vital that England do well at this tournament, not just to bring in the crowds, but also to save a sport that’s been fighting a losing battle with the 15-man code in terms of money and popularity, as well as being incapable of stopping its top players being lured to the National Rugby League.

To reverse the trend England must have a good World Cup, which means make it to the final at least and if they can’t beat a hotchpotch side like Italy, then what chance have they got against the might of the Kangaroos on Sunday morning (NZT)?

England captain Kevin Sinfield didn’t act like someone on the precipice of what could be the greatest occasion of an already stellar career when he spoke to the media at the launch, instead he looked like he was already buckling under the pressure.

‘‘We were very disappointed with Saturday’s performance and certainly the result, slightly embarrassed,’’ Sinfield said.

‘‘There is loads for us to work on and loads of things for us to fix up.

‘‘Certainly, this is a week for us to roll our sleeves up and rip into some training.

‘‘We’ll fix as much as we can, we look forward to facing Australia on Saturday [British time] and the challenge they pose.

‘‘I would love to be standing here today without this big grey cloud hanging over England and be talking about how well we played against Italy, but ultimately we’ll be judged on how we perform on Saturday.

‘‘We realise that as players. We’ve had a hit out now and hopefully we’ve got rid of all of our poor performances in one go and we can put in a good one on Saturday.’’

The game against Australia will be refereed by New Zealander Henry Perenara, fresh from the seventh tackle Beau Ryan try saga in the NRL elimination final that still has them in a rage in Townsville.

It is hard to imagine England winning the game, but if they are on the end of a heavy defeat then there could be carnage.

‘‘We will give it our best shot,’’ Sinfield said.

‘‘We’ve worked hard to get into this position, three years in the planning and we spent a couple of weeks in South Africa recently in preparation, so hopefully this is just a blip.’’

Defeat at the weekend will put England on a collision course with the Kiwis in a semifinal and Sinfield realises that’s not going to be an easy proposition.

‘‘They are very strong and they’re right up there with Australia when you look through their squad and the type of players they’ve got,’’ he said.

‘‘The fact that they’re the current holders as well makes them very dangerous.

‘‘I expect New Zealand to be right up there and causing teams plenty of problems.’’

England’s problems so far though seem to be of their own making.

The World Cup gets underway with England’s hotly anticipated clash against Australia at 2.30am on Sunday while the Kiwis get their campaign rolling a day later against Samoa in Warrington.