England are hoping some gold dust from double Olympic champion Daley Thompson will rub off on them as they go for glory against New Zealand.
England are hoping some gold dust from double Olympic champion
Daley Thompson will rub off on them as they go for glory against New
Zealand.
Former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott delivered a stirring
speech to the England players ahead of their 26-12 first-Test win over
the Kiwis in Hull last Sunday and on Friday Britain's greatest ever
decathlete presented them with their shirts at the Olympic Stadium ahead
of the second Test.
"I like to expose the players to different people from
different walks of life and we were incredibly fortunate to get Daley,"
said England coach Steve McNamara.
"He was an unbelievable athlete, I reckon the best this country
has ever produced and his mental strength to overcome those challenges
was something I really wanted to pass on to the players.
"We're at the Olympic Stadium and he was one of our very
best-ever Olympians so it's quite fitting that he's here today."
England's comeback win at the KC Stadium has put them in a
position to win a first series since 2007 when Great Britain thrashed
the Kiwis 3-0 and McNamara, who was assistant to Tony Smith eight years
ago, says his players understand the importance of the occasion.
A crowd of around 45,000 is expected for the first ever rugby league match to be played at the Olympic Stadium.
"We're in a pretty good position," said McNamara, whose side
conceded a try 20 seconds from the end to lose to New Zealand in their
last meeting in London, the 2013 World Cup semi-final. "We've worked
hard to get ourselves here.
"We've had some agonising losses in the last couple of years but
we managed to turn it around last week and hopefully we can back it up
tomorrow.
"Playing in London is a great opportunity for us. We're all aware of the outcome if we win this game.
"Hopefully there will be nearly 50,000 people here and the fact
that 65 per cent of those are from London or the south-east is huge for
our game.
"Our national team should play in the capital. They boys are
really excited because this game can do something special for rugby
league in this country."
England captain Sean O'Loughlin, who got his first look at the
stadium at the team's final training run, said: "It's an honour to be
involved in the first rugby league game here.
"It's a big chance for us. We've had a good week's preparation
and everyone is focused on trying to get the series won.
"We didn't make the best start last week but we've addressed
that in training. We k now we're going to need a massive improvement but
there is a lot at stake.
"They're going to be desperate because they need to keep the series alive."
McNamara, who is confident his side can avoid a repeat of their
start in Hull when they fell 10-0 behind, is expected to keep an
unchanged team with prop Mike Cooper overcoming a slight knee injury -
but he declined to confirm his line-up.
"They're all fit and healthy, it's a good position to be in," he said.
"Just because you win a game, it doesn't mean you go with the
same team. We looked at the game from a lot of different angles but came
up with the same 19. We do have the option to change one or two things
if needed.
"We've put some things in place which will hopefully get us off
to a better start because we certainly cannot afford to be 10 points
down again."
0 comments:
Post a Comment