Smith admits England side need to dramatically improve
Tony Smith's men need to dramatically improve if they hope to match red-hot favourites Australia next Sunday
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Saturday, 25, Oct 2008 03:36
England coach Tony Smith has ordered his side to step up their performance after surviving a scare to beat Papua New Guinea 32-22 in Townsville.
Smith's men came from 12-16 down at half-time to scrape through in their World Cup opener.
England next face world champions Australia in Melbourne on November 2nd before facing New Zealand six days later in group A.
Smith admitted his side were well below-par despite their impressive displays in their warm-up matches.
"It's hard to dominate a rugby league match when you give your opponents so much ball," Smith told the BBC.
"We were rusty, we learnt some lessons but it was good to get a win even though we didn't play too well.
"They are very enthusiastic with the ball, they are a very passionate team and playing nation.
"But credit to my boys, we knew we were a bit off and to improve the way they did in the second half, that was more of what England are about."
Papua New Guinea were buoyed by a scintillating display from Hull Kingston-Rovers stand-off Stanley Gene.
The 34-year-old said his side matched England for an hour.
"No-one in this World Cup thought we would play like we did today, everyone wrote us off," Gene said.
"But these guys believe in themselves and we showed a lot of people that PNG can compete with the best teams in the world. The country will be proud."