Meninga wary of English onslaught

Australia coach Mal Meninga is expecting a much better England side next weekend when the Kangaroos take on the hosts in London.

England have to beat Australia by 12 points or more to have a chance of making the final.

England recovered from a poor first half in Coventry to defeat Scotland 38-12.

“They’ll be motivated, they have a good attitude,” Meninga said.

“They have to win. They’ll be desperate. Wayne will have his English side really well prepared. We’ll prepare well and try and play as well as we can.”

In the second game at the Ricoh Arena the Kangaroos edged past New Zealand 14-8.

Meninga knows his team needs to improve.

“I thought we were fairly dominant for most of the game but we just couldn’t put them away,” he said.

“The Kiwis did really well. I thought our performance was really better than the Perth game.

“It was a really good performance but not quite where we should be. It was a bit scary at the end of course, but I thought we did enough to win the game.

“We’ll need to play better if we get the chance to play them again.”