Kangaroos star makes honest England admission after Everton victory

Kangaroos half-back Cameron Munster feels Australia had to step their game up to beat an improved England side, insisting his side were pushed to the limit in their Test Two victory. 

The visitors clinched an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with a 14-4 win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium yesterday, and will be out to secure a whitewash next weekend at Headingley Stadium.

‘They put some dents in us’

While the victory could suggest Australia again dominated, as they did in Test One at Wembley, England were vastly improved in Liverpool.

Shaun Wane’s changes seemed to fix some of the issues, particularly in the pack with Mike McMeeken’s introduction into the starting 13 and Morgan Smithies’ work off the bench paying off, and for large periods of time, England had Australia on the ropes.

That improvement still wasn’t enough to get the hosts over the line – both in terms of the result but also the actual try-line, with England’s points coming from two Harry Smith penalty goals – but Man of the Match Munster insists England ‘put some dents’ in his side’s defence.

“They’re a good quality team, but we work so hard on our defence,” he told the media after the game.

“At the end of the day, their attack is not bad; it’s really good. They’re up for the challenge, and we scrambled really well. It took three moments from Reece Walsh to stop them last week, and we scrambled well here.

“They put some dents in us, but the effort areas that we talk about as a group worked well for us.

“Take nothing away from England; they were great.”

His words were echoed by head coach Kevin Walters, who insists his side have endured a tough series despite taking a 2-0 lead.

“We came here expecting a tough series, and we’ve got that,” he said. “Last week at Wembley, it went under the radar in terms of how tough the game was.

“We needed to stand up today because we turned over a fair bit of ball, but they kept defending.”

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