Brian McDermott Names an Unchanged England Side for France After the Tonga Defeat
England will play France on Saturday with the same 19-man squad that lost 30-12 to Tonga, BBC Sport reported. Brian McDermott has kept faith with his halves, his fullback and his pack for a match England cannot afford to lose. It kicks off at 7.35am UK time at HBF Park in Perth, live on Premier Sports.
The team
| Players | |
|---|---|
| Starting XIII | AJ Brimson; Dom Young, Hugo Savala, Herbie Farnworth, Zach Eckersley; George Williams, Harry Smith; Max King, Brad O’Neill, Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba, Kai Pearce-Paul, Victor Radley |
| Interchange | Jez Litten, Ben Currie, Ethan Havard, Sam Walters, Jack Welsby, Matty Ashton |
| Reserves | Kallum Watkins, Mikey Lewis, Ben Talty |
Brimson keeps the fullback jersey after scoring one of England’s two tries against Tonga, with Jack Welsby among the interchanges. Luke Thompson stays at prop because Morgan Knowles is still not fit after an injury picked up before the Tonga game.
The halves stay, and Lewis stays out
The biggest call is in the halves. Williams and Smith keep their places despite being overpowered by Tonga, in the BBC’s words. Mikey Lewis, a debated pick for the squad ahead of 2025 Super League Man of Steel Jake Connor, is a reserve again.
McDermott was clear after the Tonga game that he would not chase points for the sake of it. “We’ll just focus on winning the next two games,” he said. “I can start looking at the points [difference] and start working out our strategies, but the road will lead us back to winning those two games, and winning them in a strong way.”
What England need from Saturday
England must beat France and then Papua New Guinea on 30 October to have a realistic chance of the semi-finals, and because only two of six teams in the combined Pools B and C table go through, they probably need to win both by a big score. The full maths is in can England still qualify.
France are the opponent who could give them that margin. They lost 78-4 to Samoa in their first game, and Samoa now sit on a points difference of plus 74 that England are a long way behind. England are on minus 18 after the Tonga defeat.
The rest of England’s schedule: Papua New Guinea at WIN Stadium, Wollongong, on Friday 30 October at 9.05am UK time, after the clocks go back. The combined table is updated after every match.
