Internationals / Ralph Ellis / 07 November 2008 / Leave a comment

Tony Smith's side have struggled so far at the Rugby League World Cup but Ralph Ellis is enjoying a good tournmanet with two winners out of two. Can he go one better in tomrrow's match against New Zealand?

So we've had a winner at [5.0] on England's first performance in the Rugby League World Cup and then another at [2.2] on their non-performance against Australia. Now comes the tricky time to go in search of a hat-trick.

Tony Smith's so far struggling side face New Zealand tomorrow morning in a match which is essentially the dead rubber of Pool One. The peculiar construction of the tournament which put the only three contenders for the trophy in the same opening group, with three qualifying places, means that whoever loses out of England and the Kiwis will still go through to the semi-finals - quite probably to face each other again.

How this game does matter is in coming back from the horrific 52-4 drubbing by Australia which exposed the fact that some of Smith's players have gone past their best. This makes it the moment when the younger hopefuls in the squad have to step up with the incentive to earn their places.

If they can bounce back it won't be the first time an England side has started a World Cup badly and then done well. What about the Rugby Union players in France who were hopeless for a game or two and ended up reaching the final? And even Bobby Robson's 1990 semi-finalists in Italy were facing calls to come home in shame after the first couple of matches. So one massive drubbing to a white-hot Australian side could even turn out to be a turning point.

The best news coming back from Down Under this morning is that Lee Smith, the one shining star of England's opening win over Papua New Guinea, is now fit after his foot injury and ready to return to the fray. The 22-year-old got a hat trick of tries to underline that his performance in the Play Off final was no fluke. He'll replace Ade Gardner on the wing and give Smith's side a genuine cutting edge again. Harlequins skipper Rob Purdham, man of the match in the 74-0 mauling of Wales at Doncaster, will also be coming in along with Bradford's Paul Sykes.

And Tony Smith has been doing his best to rally the troops - pointing out in this morning's Sun: "That was one defeat out of our last eight games and it was against the world champions. It is not all doom and gloom like some people think. We have regrouped fairly quickly and the players want to go straight back and rectify some things. It is all about keeping our confidence in what we are doing."

That confidence will be helped by a mass of changes, with all the squad members who have not appeared so far getting a game. The new ones have got to be brave - so maybe we should be too and back them at [2.52] to record a morale boosting win.

Five things you might not know about Lee Smith

1. Born in Leeds he was a season ticket holder both at Leeds Rhinos and Leeds United as a kid - and says his biggest sporting disappointment was watching the 2006 Championship play-off final at Wembley when Leeds lost to Watford.

2. He joined Rhinos from school and was named Academy Player of the Year in 2003

3. He was man of the match against New Zealand for an England youth team on his 18th birthday

4. Leeds Rhinos told him he could leave at the start of this season when he was out of form and badly affected by his father being jailed on drugs charges. He chose to stay and fight his way back into the team

5. He fancies himself as a bit of a chef, but Jamie Oliver needn't worry. His best dish is steak with a peppercorn sauce and home made chips!