Smith: Bennett will make England better

Cameron Smith believes Wayne Bennett will improve England with time and make them a more formidable opponent at the World Cup.

Smith’s Australia knocked out England of the Four Nations last weekend.

The Kangaroos meet New Zealand in the tournament final on Sunday. Check out this matched betting guide to take advantage of bookmaker offers.

“I think they’ll be better, you learn every time you get to play together,” Smith said.

“England were two points away from victory against the Kiwis and the Kiwis are in the final now, they weren’t that far off the mark.

“They had a few new guys playing in their team this year, I was looking through their profiles before our game and theres a few young guys in there.

“They’ll go through another season of Super League next year, the’yll be more mature.

“They’ll come over to Australia and theyll be better no doubt for the World Cup.”

Australia defeated England in London after a number of key mistakes from the home team.

The Australian skipper says those errors by England took pressure off his team.

“Those things don’t help, particularly the kicks for touch,” Smith said.

“If you had one that makes it hard, but two certainly took the pressure off us. 

“I remember when both of those kicks didn’t go in to touch there was a sigh of relief from myself, given if they got the ball back there we were defending our own try-line.

“That counts for something at the end of the game, you might have to do an extra two or three sets of six but we didn’t end up doing it in the game which in time saps energy.

“That’s why I think Wayne talks about those fundamental things, if you’re going to receive a penalty and you choose to kick for touch and those balls need to find the line.

“The two guys that had those kicks, Gareth Widdop he’s been a teammate of mine and Josh Hodgson was the other one so these two guys are quality footballers.

“You just can’t afford to make errors like that in big games and I’m sure those two guys will get asked and they will be pretty disappointed with those.

“Those guys will learn from that and they’ll be better for it the next time.”