Gareth Widdop ready to play anywhere for England at World Cup
Thursday 16 November 2017 11:05, UK
Gareth Widdop is ready to turn the clock back as England prepare to play knockout rugby at the World Cup.
The 28-year-old St George Illawarra captain and stand-off reverted to full-back for his country in their win over France and, in the continuing absence of the injured Jonny Lomax, will keep the role for Sunday's quarter-final against Papua New Guinea at his old Melbourne's AAMI Park.
Halifax-born Widdop has won the bulk of his 24 England caps at stand-off but made his England debut against France in the number one jersey back in 2010 and was man of the match in the role in the 36-6 win over the French in Perth.
"It's been okay," he said. "It's probably been six or seven years now since I played back there.
"I'll play anywhere just to represent my country. Wherever I get put, I'll happily do my best to try and get the job done."
Kevin Brown keeps the number six jersey for Sunday's game and will get the chance to build on his promising partnership with Luke Gale.
The trio combined superbly to put England into an early 26-0 lead against France after 28 minutes, although their failure to fully press home their advantage provided a clear indication of an area for improvement.
"As a team, the first half was really good," Widdop said. "We spoke about completion and discipline being good.
"The second half was a bit scrappy, we turned the ball over too much and were on the back foot so we need to be better this week. When we're good, we can score points, it's about doing that for 80 minutes."
After letting Lebanon off the hook in similar fashion a week earlier, Widdop knows England cannot afford a repeat as the competition gets tougher.
"It's certainly something we need to fix," he added. "We can't afford to keep doing that, that's for sure, but we get another opportunity this week to get that right."
Papua New Guinea, made up largely of the PNG Hunters team that took the Queensland Cup by storm in 2017, go into the quarter-final on the back of a three-match winning run and Widdop accepts they will be no pushovers.
"They've a good side," he said. "They've done really well over here this year.
"It will be a tough battle, it always is, but we need to worry about ourselves first, and make sure we get everything right."
