England may battle to beat France tonight.
England will be up against it v PNG
I doubt they will get past Tonga if they get through PNG

Australia have not got out of third gear yet and they have a six speed box.

You will beat PNG easily.
They don't travel well and a Wayne Bennett coached side will play boring, no mistake footy, which is perfect for playing PNG, who will make plenty of mistakes themselves.
You will grind out the win by just holding the ball.

England are not great at hanging on to the ball.
When those PNG missiles come flying in I think England will need to play at their top level to hang on, they have little of anything in attack beyond the Wingers, and they have to see the ball before they can do anything.
PNG have pace and power all over the Park.
They are a lot better than they were in 2008 where they gave England a scare, if the game was played in Moresby my money would have been on PNG

England will beat PNG by 30 and Tonga by 20

I said once the Tongan defectors had made their move that I could see Tonga in the Final and I stand by that. England v Tonga at Mt Smart will be an epic occasion which will see nearly all 30,000 seats occupied by Tongan Supporters......sorry, but I can't see past a Tonga v ANZAC final.....the Kiwis know what they must do now and I'd fancy them to give the Aussies a massive scare.

rlrl
Draw bracket from the official RLWC2017 site, which I'm assuming is wrong as this has Eng down to play NZ in the semis if both win through.

I think so.......I always thought that the only time England could meet Australia again was the final!

I think people are overestimating PNG. They've looked good playing in stifling heat and humidity in front of their own fans, but Wales and the US were awful. Ireland, which is basically half a mid-table SL side plus Championship players stood up to them and only just lost in that same environment.

Ireland deserve a bit of credit BTW, they are the only one of the northern hemisphere teams to play above expectations. Wales and Scotland have been largely embarrassingly bad.

I'd counter that and say PNG are miles ahead of where they were 4 years ago and will be a top 6 side again in 2021 in the cold....they will tire against England and lose, but they are far better than last time out

So are England than when they played PNG under Tony Smith. That was probably an all-time low in terms of quality of players in the squad, particularly threequarters. Whilst they have improved, most of the PNG team play Qld Cup, and the Hunters got destroyed by Penrith in the interstate final.

Put it this way, I think Fiji would smash PNG out of sight - they play a similar game but are bigger and faster and Hayne is a better half than any PNG option. Tonga, NZ and Australia would similarly wipe them out. Samoa could too if they played to their strengths in the forwards, and I'd fancy Lebanon as well given the quality of their defence.

I love watching PNG play and their style, and I think they will continue to improve, but they really shouldn't do more than ruffle England a bit. If England play a ruthless professional style they should win by plenty.

PNG should lose by plenty, but I can't help thinking Michael Marum has something up his sleeve still.
He has had a month long camp with heaps of players with NRL experience and lots of skill, and he has been able to have 3 games where he got to try different players in different positions.
PNG are the only side who haven't spent a day travelling and half the squad have been sleeping in their own beds every night.
They have had a perfect month long buildup to this game except for suffering a fair few injuries.
England have been flying across time zones and sleeping in a different bed every second night, while PNG have had a month long training camp in their own backyards.

The Hunters were in Sydney for the first time ever...playing an NRL 2nd team line up with 8 players having 1st team games this year. PNG Hunters will win the interstate withing 2 more seasons....

You clearly didn't see the Hunters towards the end of the season. The Qld Cup teams had no answers to them early in the year, but by the end of the season had worked out how to play them - basically smash up the middle and kick to the corners for 20 minutes, followed by throwing the ball around. They should have lost the Qld Cup final, but managed to just hang on. Against Penrith they were beaten out of sight.

PNG have a huge number of errors in them and often fail to reach the end of a set with anything like a kick. For some reason everyone seems to ignore the fact that Ireland, a team with really very few quality players, stayed with them right until the end, even in the heat in Port Moresby. They did that by playing a simple attacking game, using their strengths in the forwards, and not missing tackles. The USA and Wales were by far the worst teams in the WC - really not great examples to show how good or bad PNG are.

Like I say, I love their style but any team with serious ambitions to winning the WC ought to smash them out of sight. If England make their tackles and don't drop the ball all over the field they should win by a fair margin. If we don't that says a lot more about England's lack of quality than how good PNG are. Can you honestly imagine any of the other quarter-finalists being beaten by PNG except possibly Lebanon?

Yes, Samoa for starters. Samoa could only draw with a weakened Scottish team.

Really? Ireland should have beaten them there and England are a far better team than them. PNG have come along nicely but England should be a step too far even if they played at home, plus England are a better team than they were in 2008.
Like others have said and I agree with, they make far too many errors and can be indisciplined. So for me England will capitalise on those, like an experienced full time Pro outfit should do. With Sam back and no constantly switching of combinations like in the last game, especially the spine of the team, I think we'll really step up at this stage of the comp and have a goood game.