Winger Smith major doubt for Aussie clash
Smith scored a hat-trick of triesduring Saturday's narrow win over Papua New Guinea
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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. |  |
Monday, 27, Oct 2008 09:28
England winger Lee Smith is a major doubt for Sunday's Rugby League World Cup match against Australia.
Smith scored a hat-trick as England claimed a 32-22 victory over Papua New Guinea in their opening game, but is now suffering with a foot injury.
"Lee is still a worry. He's going to be unlikely (to play) but you never know," England coach Tony Smith said.
"He's responding well to treatment. We won't cross him off altogether but he's up against it."
The England coach also revealed that former Wigan winger Mark Calderwood could fill the gap should Smith be ruled out of Sunday's clash.
"That would be the logical call but we haven't made that call yet. There are probably going to be a few adjustments," said Smith.
"We need to look over the Australia game first before we make a final call.
"Maybe if we see something we can exploit and we've got someone in the squad to do that we'd certainly consider that. I've never picked a team without watching the opposition first.
"It's all about making sure our strengths are up to speed and exploiting weaknesses where they are in the opposition and we'll do that throughout the week."
Smith also urged his side that they will need a big improvement in their performance if they are to defeat Australia on their home patch.
"Certainly we're working on our deficiencies and some areas that we weren't as good as we needed to be and even some areas that we're good at that we were just a bit below par," added Smith.
"We've got a bit of faith in what we're doing and while you have faith, you never know what might happen."