Thurston: We knew how to topple England

Johnathan Thurston Australia was confident they could prevail against England in the end and that England are a work in progress under coach Wayne Bennett.

England started strongly yesterday but the Kangaroos edged ahead at half-time and than ran riot in the second half to win 36-18.

Thurston said the Kangaroos knew they couldn’t ease off when the game was close.

“England are strong for 60, 70 minutes, you’ve got to stay in the fight there and keep plugging away otherwise they’ll get you on the bell,” he said.

“We knew if we did that than we could get them in the end, and that’s what we did. The team put in a good performance after knowing that we were already in the final.

“The boys got stuck in, it was a good performance. We stayed in the fight and ended up kicking on in the end.”

Thurston believes England lacked some “polish” on the end of their attacking opportunities and in their execution.

“They’re a work in progress there for Wayne,” he said.

“They’re always tough when they we play them. They’re really big through the middle third, it lays a platform for them.

“They probably just lacked a bit of polish on the end of their sets.

“But I thought our big boys through the middle third really controlled that for us, laid a platform and we scored some points.”