'It's game on': England coach Shaun Wane ready for sudden death rugby after huge RLWC2021 win over Greece

The hosts finished top of group A following a 94-4 demolition of Greece at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane on Saturday and are set to meet Papua New Guinea in the quarter-finals at Wigan next weekend.

Leeds Rhinos’ Mikolaj Oledzki was left out of the meeting with Greece, being named as England’s 18th man, but Wane insisted he and other players who weren’t selected could feature over the next three weeks,

Wane pledged to select the 17 he believes can beat PNG and stressed: “It can change through the next three games, with injuries and suspensions. Everyone will have a part to play.”

England scored 196 points in their three group matches, conceding only 28, but Wane admitted the tournament will go up a level once the knockout games begin.

“It’s sudden death and we are going to train hard,” he stated. “It’s game on, these are the weeks I like, when the pressure’s on and we have to win. I’ve really enjoyed the last few weeks and I am desperate for it to continue for the next few.”

England ran in 17 tries against Greece and Wane reflected: “We did a lot of good things and some of the skills we displayed were superb.”

Salford’s former Castleford Tigers half-back Marc Sneyd was among England’s try scorers, as well as kicking 13 goals, but reckons his place next week is not assured..

Sneyd said: “All I can do is do my best on the field and in training. We’ll just see what happens.”

Greece coach Steve Georgallis believes England can win the World Cup. He noted: “They have a lot of class, they scored some really good tries. PNG will be tough, but from what I have seen, I think they [England] can go all the way.”

The Greeks lost all three games in their first World Cup campaign, but Georgallis was “proud and a bit emotional” after Saturday’s match.

“We walked around the field at the end, after getting beaten by 90 and the crowd were cheering us and calling out the name of our country,” he said.

“I think that goes to show the effort the players put in. I thought for the first 20 minutes we gave England a bit of a show and we scored early, but then they clicked into another gear and class shone, but the players never gave up.

“With 30 minutes to go we had no reserves and we had four domestic players on all at once, which was amazing.

“For them to be playing on that stage, against one of the best teams in the world, it was an awesome feeling.”

Captain Jordan Meads described Greece’s first World Cup campaign as a “phenomenal experience”.

He reflected: “We wanted to compete and I thought we had moments of excellence in all three games.

“For the first 20 minutes we were in the game, then you blink and you’re down by 30 points. This is the beginning for rugby league in Greece, we will be back.”