Karl Harrison wants GB’s class of ’92 to inspire England

Former Great Britain prop Karl Harrison was part of the last British side to beat the Australians in Melbourne in 1992, and he is hoping that the current England team can take inspiration from the past.

Steve McNamara’s England team face Australia in the second round of the Four Nations at Melbourne this Sunday, and Harrison feels that they have a good chance of success.

While the GB team of 1992 won the Melbourne test match, they were beaten in the other two games of the series.

“It was the first tour to Australia I had ever been on so I was really excited, I got to play in the second Test on that memorable night when we beat them. It felt like there were 60,000 Great Britian fans in that stadium,” said Harrison, recalling the glory days of 1992.

“We played extremely well in bad conditions: the atmosphere was incredible. We were a bit rusty in the first Test but as the tour went on we got stronger and we were so unlucky to lose in that last test.

“As an elite player to go on a tour like that is what you dream of, you’re in the wrong profession if it’s not.”

Harrison, now working as an assistant coach at Bradford Bulls, believes that England did well last weekend to come through a tough test against Samoa.

“Samoa are an extremely tough team to beat and I think the England players showed a lot of character to go on and win,” he added.

“They are a young team and there are some fairly inexperienced lads in there that have really turned up. Steve will look back at the Samoa game with them and assess where they need to improve.

“You need to be strong to beat Australia, they are a really physical team and England need to reflect that in the middle, they’ve got to fight fire with fire and I think Steve has a team that can do that.

“I really believe that they have what it takes to win on Sunday.”