TWITTER TALK: Fans react to England beating Papua New Guinea

England defeated Papua New Guinea 36-6 to reach the semi-finals of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup and fans have had contrasting views on social media.

Wayne Bennett made five changes to his England side that beat France last weekend. Ryan Hall, Kallum Watkins, Sam Burgess, Elliott Whitehead and Josh Hodgson came in for Stefan Ratchford, Mark Percival, Mike McMeeken, Scott Taylor and George Williams.

England scored three unanswered first half tries through Jermaine McGillvary (2) and Alex Walmsley to be in a 14-0 advantage at the interval.

Ben Currie extended England’s lead shortly after the break before new Castleford Tigers recruit Garry Lo pulled one back for the Kumuls.

The Three Lions scored three tries in the last 13 minutes through Kallum Watkins (2), who was loverugbyleague.com’s man of the match, and Ryan Hall as they ran-out 36-6 winners at the Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne.

England will now face Tonga in the semi-finals in Auckland next weekend while Australia will take on Fiji.

TEAMS

England: 1. Gareth Widdop, 2. Jermaine McGillvary, 3. Kallum Watkins, 4. John Bateman, 5. Ryan Hall, 6. Kevin Brown, 7. Luke Gale, 8. Chris Hill, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. James Graham, 11. Sam Burgess, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Sean O’Loughlin (C).

Interchange: 14. Alex Walmsley, 15. Tom Burgess, 16. Ben Currie, 17. James Roby.

Papua New Guinea: 1. David Mead (C), 2. Justin Olam, 3. Kato Ottio, 4. Nene MacDonald, 5. Garry Lo, 6. Ase Boas, 7. Watson Boas, 8. Moses Meninga, 9. James Segeyaro, 10. Luke Page, 11. Rhyse Martin, 12. Willie Minoga, 13. Paul Aiton.

Interchange: 14. Kurt Baptiste, 15. Stargroth Amean, 16. Stanton Albert, 17. Rod Griffin.

And here is how you reacted to the result on Twitter:

Not a sport I generally watch but that was an exciting display and at a great time for viewing for all us early wakers. Well done #ENGvPNG #RLWC2017. Papua New Guinea not a country I tend to see compete in other sports so that was a welcome opportunity too.

— Sarah Evans (@Sarahevansse) November 19, 2017

Job done not brilliant but building nicely got Tonga get past them n possibly Australia in final so ul see a different turned on England

— saints&wigan banter (@SaintsWigan) November 19, 2017

Too many mistakes,got to fix it or Tonga will punish us

— John Thompson (@johntomo53) November 19, 2017

Play King George. Our halves look lost.

— ☈ (@r0bbo_) November 19, 2017

Superb from the boys. On we go #WallOfWhite

— Chris Cooper (@COOPSthereitis4) November 19, 2017

Worth getting up early. Great result!! Lockers #LegendLeader Bring on Tonga!! Cut the mistakes and we'll make the final. Bring on the Semi Final!! #RLWC2017 #ENGvPNG #bbcrl

— Pete Corbett (@corby1983) November 19, 2017

Again McGillvary played awesome game others watch & learn

— Ken Berry (@KenBerry7) November 19, 2017

Awful. Really awful. #rlwc2017 The levels are not rising. Left side offers nothing at all. Gale & Bateman might as well not have played.

— JimJackBond (@ChrisHawkis1) November 19, 2017

Well done @England_RL good result today. Job done. On to next week! #ENGvPNG #RLWC2017

— Nick (@Nickwilson55) November 19, 2017

Let’s build on this performance @England_RL in the game #ENGvPNG today. The team certainly has potential to do something special at this years #RLWC17.

— Rob (@haddow59) November 19, 2017

What do you make of the England performance and end result? Let us know in the comments below.