England head coach Brian McDermott has called for ‘generational decisions’ to be made over the direction of the national team, as he doubles down on his hopes of extending his tenure in the hot seat beyond the current World Cup.

McDermott took over the reins just before the tournament in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea began, and has since taken his side to a record of one win and one defeat in their opening two Tests.

However, that defeat has left England facing a tough ask to reach the semi-finals, with them needing to beat the PNG Kumuls and then hope Tonga down Samoa with a 68-point swing between the two fixtures.

England cannot leapfrog the Mate Ma’a due to Tonga’s superior head-to-head record.

‘There are some generational decisions that need to be made’

His appointment as national team boss followed a heavily criticised plan for the side heading into the World Cup, with the squad not playing any mid-season or pre-World Cup Tests nor meeting in person ahead of the campaign.

In comparison, England faced the Combined All Stars in a mid-season fixture and then played Fiji just before the delayed 2021 World Cup four years ago. They also played France mid-season in both 2023 and 2024 before their three-Test series against Tonga and Samoa, respectively.

With England staring the very real possibility of being knocked out at the pool stage, McDermott has thrown the gauntlet down and called for ‘generational decisions’ to be made on the side.

“The game in England over the last 20 or 30 years, the challenges are the same now,” he said. “I’m not being a prophet of doom here when I say Super League hasn’t produced or can’t produce enough, just yet: sixes, sevens, nines and ones; sometimes we’re just picking the only six, seven, nine and one that’s available and I should be picking from 10 or 15. I can use an argument to describe other facets of the game, but that’s nothing new. That’s been the same for 40 years now, nearly.

“Whatever happens at the end of the World Cup, and you can read into it what you want or make a couple of headlines or make a couple of statements, but there are some generational decisions that need to be made. Not just because of this World Cup.

“Now the fact that Tongans, Samoans, Fijians, Papua New Guineans and Cook Islanders are starting to get regular first-grade games in the NRL, and some of those have 100s of games and some are Origin players, that’s where that’s gone for them.

“It’s brilliant for the game that the comp down under isn’t just battled out by New Zealand and Australia. Tonga is a really credible threat, as are Samoa, and then just on the heels of them you have Fiji, Cook Islands and PNG that are getting even stronger. Isn’t that brilliant for the game? It’s brilliant for the whole of rugby league; it’s got a foothold which is getting even stronger.

“But then if you want to ask why England isn’t growing and developing in the same way; that’s not just about this World Cup, that’s been the question that’s not been answered for 30 or 40 years.”

His plea to the decision makers at the top of the game also comes amid the backdrop of him wanting to continue as England head coach after the World Cup, and he has doubled down on that position with the suggestion of a four-year plan to carry the national side through to the next World Cup.

“The opportunity is there,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of RFL representatives with us who have been great; just from a logistical point of view, we need a couple of guys with us, but I haven’t talked to them (about the future). I think it would be inappropriate for me to start talking about how things are going to look after the World Cup; we have the World Cup to deal with first. There’s no rush.

“I’ve obviously said publicly that I’d like to take the job on and put a four-year plan in place ready for the next World Cup, which is what I think should happen.

“But there’s no rush; we’ll get this World Cup put to bed and spend the off-season talking about what may be.”