Australia v England
Elland Road
They've spent all week trying to find the kryptonite to nullify Australia's superman, but England coach Tony Smith concedes his side may struggle to stop Greg Inglis from running away with the Four Nations final.
Centre Inglis has been marked as the man England must shut down at Elland Road tomorrow morning (NZ time) after he destroyed their right edge defence the last time the two teams met two weeks ago.
While Australia are gearing to repel the giant English pack which sparked the home side to life in the second half of that 26-16 win in Wigan, their fears are nothing compared with those being created by Inglis.
The men facing their moment of truth for England are centre Chris Bridge and winger Peter Fox, neither of whom played in the Wigan match.
"I'm not making excuses for them but it's bloody hard when you've got high-quality people coming at you with a lot in their armoury," Smith said of stopping Inglis. "It looks simple, from the sidelines you'd think we'd be able to close it down, [but] it's not as easy as us onlookers probably think.
"Teams in Australia spend months and months preparing for those special sort of players but players like Inglis can still rip those plans apart when they play against them week in and week out."
The Inglis threat has only increased with coach Tim Sheens switching player of the year Jarryd Hayne to the left wing outside him.
Smith bravely claimed the move could backfire, given Hayne hasn't played on the left wing since the State of Origin series, but Australian skipper Darren Lockyer had no doubt his outside backs could prevail if the Kangaroos pack matched it with the highly rated English forwards.
Sheens admitted England had benefited from a much tougher run-in to the final, with Australia's last-start win over France in Paris with a makeshift side resembling a training run at times.
England triumphed in a wet and wild 20-12 win over the world champion Kiwis in nearby Huddersfield, and with similar conditions expected tomorrow morning, the hosts will fancy their chances.
"It [the England-New Zealand game] was certainly the best game of the tournament and certainly the first time I'd seen a side play 80 minutes," Sheens said. "I didn't see a weakness in their game. I thought New Zealand were the form team of all of us and England just pulled them apart."
AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND
Australia
Billy Slater
Jarryd Hayne
Greg Inglis
Justin Hodges
Brett Morris
D Lockyer (Capt)
J Thurston
Ben Hannant
Cameron Smith
P Civoniceva
Luke Lewis
Paul Gallen
N Hindmarsh
Interchange: David Shillington, Sam Thaiday, Anthony Watmough, Kurt Gidley, Michael Jennings, Brett White (two to be omitted)
England
Shaun Briscoe
Peter Fox
Chris Bridge
M Shenton
Ryan Hall
Sam Tomkins
Kyle Eastmond
Adrian Morley
Kevin Sinfield
James Graham
J Peacock (capt)
Gareth Ellis
Sam Burgess
Interchange: Eorl Crabtree, Jon Wilkin, Ben Westwood, James Roby
- AAP
