Revenge mission for Sinfield

Leeds captain full of praise for young players in Tony Smith's squad

Last updated: 2nd November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Revenge mission for Sinfield

Sinfield: Impressed by young players in England squad

It's a similar situation to how it was in the World Cup last year, when we came up short against the Kiwis. A few of the boys were involved in that match. We haven't forgotten how it felt at the end - and we're all looking to put it right

Kevin Sinfield
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Kevin Sinfield is determined to make sure New Zealand don't break English hearts again when the two nations meet in a do-or-die clash on Saturday.

England take on the Kiwis at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield with a win for either team taking them through to face Australia in the Four Nations final.

Tony Smith's side will be hoping they don't suffer a repeat of their last meeting with New Zealand, who knocked them out of the World Cup in 2008.

Although some faces in the squad have changed since that defeat Down Under, Sinfield believes the current crop of players will still be looking to put things right from that semi-final disappointment

Massive game

"This is a massive game for both countries," said the Leeds captain. "It's a semi-final, and no one wants to lose a semi-final.

"It's a similar situation to how it was in the World Cup last year, when we

came up short against the Kiwis.

"A few of the boys were involved in that match. We haven't forgotten how it felt at the end - and we're all looking to put it right."

England have already failed to qualify for the final once having lost 26-16 to Australia at the DW Stadium in Wigan.

They trailed the Kangaroos 26-0 at the break but fought back impressively in the second half, raising hopes of success this weekend against the Kiwis.

"It's all right saying it was a great 40 minutes. But at the end of the day, we still lost - and that really hurts," Sinfield admitted.

"We can take lot of 'positives' about our performance but we know we need to improve. Against both France and Australia, we didn't start well at all - and we can't afford to let that happen again.

"We showed our capabilities in that second half; now we have to step it up and play even better against the world champions."

No fear

Sinfield has singled out the youngsters in England's squad for special praise, with their fearless attitude possibly being crucial going into such a massive game.

"The young players have really been impressive in this tournament," he said. "They've all put their hand up on the pitch, and on the training field.

"People like Richie Myler, Sam Tomkins, Kyle Eastmond, Tom Briscoe and Scott Moore have no fear. They go into every game believing they can win - and have performed outstandingly well in this tournament.

"It's been great having them in the squad. You don't realise how talented some of them are until you play and train with them.

"The ones who played last weekend all stood up to the Aussies and will have taken a lot of confidence from our second-half performance."