England beat Papua New Guinea but World Cup exit now looms

England beat Papua New Guinea 34-12 at the Rugby League World Cup in Wollongong, but the result leaves Brian McDermott's side on the brink of missing the semi-finals, according to BBC Rugby League.

The defeat that undermines England's campaign actually came a fortnight earlier, in their opening group match against Tonga. The Guardian's Aaron Bower reported that the World Cup's ten-team, lop-sided group format meant England were effectively eliminated from that moment, regardless of how they fared in their remaining fixtures.

To keep their qualification alive by Sunday, England needed to overturn a 68-point points-difference deficit behind Samoa, requiring a winning margin in the region of 67 points against Papua New Guinea while also hoping Tonga would slip up. A 24-point winning margin, Bower wrote, was nowhere near enough.

The match itself began promisingly. England raced into a 22-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes, playing with enough intensity to suggest the scale of victory required was within reach.

That form did not last. England went 50 minutes without adding a fifth try, and in that period Papua New Guinea scored twice, effectively ending any realistic points-difference scenario that could have carried England through.

Late tries from Morgan Knowles and Mikey Lewis secured the bonus of a second win from three pool games, but by then the permutations that mattered had already closed off, per the Guardian's account.

Attention now turns to Tonga's meeting with Samoa in Sydney on Sunday. Tonga are capable of winning that fixture, but Bower noted their biggest-ever margin of victory in the rivalry stands at 32 points — well short of what England would need to have any realistic route to the last four.

On that basis, Bower concluded that England can effectively start planning their return home, with the tournament set to mark the first time in the history of the Rugby League World Cup that England have failed to reach the semi-finals.

The Guardian suggested the sterner reckoning for English rugby league — over a group-stage format that left a team with two wins from three unable to progress, and over England's performance levels when the stakes were already effectively gone — will have to wait until the weekend's results in Sydney are confirmed.

England's involvement in this World Cup now rests on events beyond their control, with Sunday's Tonga versus Samoa fixture set to determine whether their campaign is mathematically over or simply over in practice.