1 Nov 2010

England coach philosophical about Four Nations loss

6:05 am on 1 November 2010

The England coach Steve McNamara preferred to look on the bright side of a gloomy night for his team, saying their 34-14 loss to Australia in the Four Nations rugby league tournament was a step in the right direction.

The English were soundly beaten in a six tries to two romp in the rain at Melbourne's AAMI Park, with Australia and New Zealand now set to play in the final.

Despite being winless after two games and with only Papua New Guinea left to play, McNamara felt there was a bright future.

He says the team has an average age of 24, the captain, James Graham, is only 25, the other starting frontrower Sam Burgess is only 21 and the outside backs probably only have 10 caps between them and says the young side made some big strides forward during the tournament.

McNamara believes his young side physically imposed themselves on the hosts and, apart from several crucial errors, there wasn't a lot between his men and the defending Four Nations champions.