Briscoe - Fearless youth

Burgess knows making the final is not enough

Last updated: 10th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Briscoe - Fearless youth

Briscoe: the here and now

England v Australia
Saturday 7pm, live on Sky Sports 2 and HD2

Related links

Teams

Also see

England full-back Shaun Briscoe reckons the naivety of youth could be the secret weapon in Saturday's Four Nations final against Australia.

Coach Tony Smith is set to keep faith with the young guns that shot down the Kiwis last week to earn a place in the Elland Road showpiece and Briscoe reckons they could just give England the edge over the Kangaroos.

"The naievety and enthusiasm they bring to the squad is great for us," the Hull KR star told Sky Sports News. "There are a lot of people have talked about previous defeats to Australia, defeats to the Kiwis.

"That doesn't matter now, this is the here and now. They haven't been involved in anything like that so they have a lot of belief in themselves and I'm sure they'll show it."

Former Bradford prop Sam Burgess knows just how much victory on Saturday would mean to the English game.

"As a nation we are not satisfied with just making this final," said Burgess, who is himself heading down under to join Sydney Rabbitohs next season. "I think we have really got to go and kick on.

"I think it would be great for our sport, for English rugby league and for kids coming through to give them belief that the Aussies are beatable and that England are in the top three nations and hopefully can grab the number one spot."

England coach Tony Smith has a full strength squad of 24 from whch to select his team for Saturday's final.