{"id":929711,"date":"2026-10-16T01:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929711\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T01:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:34:12","slug":"england-coach-not-amused-with-bizarre-route-to-perth-for-rugby-league-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929711\/","title":{"rendered":"England coach not amused with bizarre route to Perth for Rugby League World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s Rugby League World Cup<\/a> coach Brian McDermott has joked his players were left feeling like the character Phileas Fogg from Around the World in 80 Days after a \u201ccrazy\u201d travel itinerary that left them buggered when they finally arrived in Perth.<\/p>\n

Instead of taking the direct flight from London to Perth, England\u2019s players first flew to Singapore.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nothing out of the ordinary, but it\u2019s from there that things turned truly bizarre.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of making the roughly five-hour flight from Singapore to Perth, England flew for almost eight hours to Sydney, before then hopping on another plane to make the roughly five-hour trek back across Australia to the WA capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players had the death route to get to Australia. They went around the world four times, I think,\u201d McDermott told AAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe waved to Perth on the way over to Sydney, and then went back to Perth.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Currie’s England teammates took an interesting path to Perth for their World Cup opener. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ask me why, and it\u2019s not a problem other than the fact that we landed and they\u2019ve been on the road for 46 hours, so that was tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crazy route. The players were buggered when they got here, but they weren\u2019t whingeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was eyes up, ready to go. Nobody was complaining about the route that they had to take to get here, so that\u2019s a great sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google\"Google<\/p>\n

McDermott did his best to make light of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the same ticket as Phileas Fogg that went around the world in 80 days. Then we landed in Perth,\u201d he said with a wry smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on the aeroplane with John Candy and Steve Martin – planes, trains and automobiles,\u201d McDermott added in reference to the 1987 road-trip comedy film.<\/p>\n

Luckily, England\u2019s players have enjoyed a week in Perth to acclimatise and get over their jet-lag, with McDermott confident his players will be ready to fire when they take on Tonga at HBF Park on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

With only two teams out of six across Pools B and C making it through to the semi-finals, the losers of Saturday\u2019s match will find it hard to make the final four.<\/p>\n

The game will mark McDermott\u2019s first in charge since being appointed England coach in April.<\/p>\n

McDermott has a strong pedigree given he is the most successful Super League coach in history, having won eight major trophies with Leeds Rhinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s powerful when he speaks,\u201d England captain George Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody definitely listens. He\u2019s one of those people who grabs the room and commands respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Everything you need to know about 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/p>\n

8 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Emotional Reece pours heart out after putting body through the hell <\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England\u2019s Rugby League World Cup coach Brian McDermott has joked his players were left feeling like the character…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1625,158,760,139707,588,85,438546],"class_list":["post-929711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lifestyle","tag-nrl","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league-world-cup","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-your-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}