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Enable Cookies<\/a> “We can’t go into this game thinking about the points difference. We’ve got to go into this game hard-nosed like we did against Tonga, and hopefully if we do our jobs well enough we’re going to get the win.”<\/p>\n A complicated cross-group format has left England needing Tonga to beat Samoa in their final group game in a fortnight’s time to stand any chance of reaching the last four – provided all the other games go to form.<\/p>\n That would take the final semi-final slot down to points difference between England and Samoa – and McDermott’s men are already up against it given Samoa’s stunning win over the Super League-laden French side.<\/p>\n Image: “I feel like we play France in Super League most weeks with Catalans and Toulouse, so there will be some familiar faces,” O’Neill added.<\/p>\n “We’re expecting a great game at the weekend. France are coming off a loss, like us as well, so they are going to come out firing.<\/p>\n “But we’re not changing anything about the way we play. It’s more about working on the execution side of things that we didn’t do so well against Tonga. As you’d expect, Saturday was very disappointing, but there is still a real belief in this team.”<\/p>\n What’s next?<\/p>\n England must regroup ahead of facing France in Perth next Saturday, kick-off 7.35am (UK and Ireland time). Meanwhile, England women face Australia at 10.05am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England hooker Brad O’Neill says his side will resist the urge to go for broke when they face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-938834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938834","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=938834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/skysports-rugby-league-dominic-young_7378695.jpg\")
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\n England know they will have to score points as Samoa have already beaten France 78-4<\/p>\n