England star Jack Brown says his side have been thriving off the pressure of being the home nation at the Rugby League World Cup as they gear up for an exciting final with France in Manchester on Friday.
Speaking on The Last Tackle alongside head coach Tom Coyd ahead of Friday’s showpiece, Brown revealed that the players have been thriving off the pressure of being the home nation and that the ambition was always to go and win the tournament.
“There’s definitely a sense of pressure but it sort of carries us,” he said
“I think we’ve been playing at this level for a long time and the focus has always been this World Cup - and us winning this World Cup.
“We’ve narrowly missed out the last two times and there’s been heartbreak, but we’ve never been in a better position. We’ve never had more funding behind us, the push from staff and everything from nutrition to mindfulness, to even just the media, it’s made us feel more professional.”
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“We knew it was going to be a big tournament and it was going to be special, but I don’t think we were fully ready for how special it was going to be and how much coverage, how much positive reinforcement we were going to get from that. And it’s actually been really beneficial for the team. It has lifted us a lot and so the pressure’s sort of carried us through a lot of the games.”
Brown has been one of the standout stars in the tournament and has been exceptional for England. He scored eight tries alone in the semi-final hammering of Wales and is certainly one for their French opposites to worry about facing.
England boss Coyd admitted that the biggest thing surrounding his group of players is the strength of the bond they have with each other and that has transitioned into their performances on the pitch.
He added: “Relationships have intensified to a degree that I probably didn’t see coming. And we’re the most connected we’ve ever been as a squad, and it’s feeding into our play on the pitch.”
Like Brown, Coyd has been loving the extensive coverage of the wheelchair Rugby League World Cup and that the players deserve all the attention for all of the work that they have put in throughout this entire journey.
“I’ve been a part of the coaching staff since the start of 2018, and we obviously worked towards this World Cup longer than we thought we needed to, with the extra 12 months coming in.
“But for the players as well, they’ve been playing the sport, some of them like 20 years, without any promise of playing in an event like this with so much exposure and this much fanfare. So it’s a really nice prize for them, for all their hard work.”
The final with France kicks off at 7:30pm at Manchester Central on Friday.