BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Brian Carney says England must hope Australia do not produce their best in Liverpool to have a chance of knocking them off in the second Ashes Test.
The second game of the series kicks off at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday. England are 1-0 down and must-win to keep their Ashes dream alive.
Carney, who played in the NRL and was a member of the last Great Britain & Ireland team to defeat the Kangaroos in 2006, believes the Aussies were below-par at Wembley and have a lot of improvement to come.
“My worry for England would be the mentality of these Australians,” he told rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“They’ve got the job done, you could tell they were fairly unhappy with their performance. There will be no resting on their laurels.
“But if Australia had been red-hot on England, there’d be a chance of complacency. But the fact is they weren’t red-hot.
“Everyone has acknowledged and the Aussies have got so much improvement in them as well. But they competed less than England and still won the game.
“England need a 50% improvement in their performance and they want to hope Australia don’t improve one iota. In fact, they’d almost need Australia to regress a little.
“All this talk of England having more grit than Australia… They’ve shown that to be nonsense. This grit stufff… I’ve been up against the Aussies enough times to know they’re nothing if not gritty and determined.
“That’s just in their nature.”
England have run the changes with halfback Harry Smith expected to start ahead of Mikey Lewis, and fullback Jack Welsby dropped to make way for AJ Brimson.
Kallum Watkins has also come in for John Bateman because of illness, with Mikołaj Olędzki replacing Ethan Havard.
“They’re putting huge store in Harry Smith being able to kick them out of trouble if they find themselves in trouble again in the first 25 minutes,” Carney said.
“Jack Welsby delivered a performance on Saturday that was akin to Jack Welsby’s club form. And most of them did really. They’re going to need an almight rise [in performance].
“AJ Brimson will give them a bit of speed. But there will be questions on Saturday if the series is lost, there will be questions.
“Conversations will start up about a different coach for the World Cup. There will be a serious inquistion into where England go from here if they lose on Saturday.”