NEWCASTLE // The captain Jamie Peacock cannot wait to put things right when England have another crack at New Zealand in Saturday's World Cup semi-final. Peacock's men sunk to a 36-24 defeat against the Kiwis after leading their final group game 24-8, but secured a place in the last four when Australia beat Papua New Guinea 46-6. The Kangaroos now face Fiji while England must regroup for their game with New Zealand.
"We need to get on and perform next week," said Peacock. "We have to take the positives out of it and work on the negatives and just get on with it. "But, if we want to win next week, we have to play for 80 minutes and we need to start the second half well. We need to come back from it and we've all done that in Super League." England made a dream start by touching down twice in the first eight minutes against New Zealand.
It got even better by the 30-minute mark, when tries from Rob Burrow (2), Mickey Higham and Martin Gleeson, all converted by Rob Purdham, established a 16-point cushion. But in the second half the Kiwis hit back and ran in 28 points without reply. "It's very frustrating when you put in a great 40 minutes and lose the game," said Peacock. "When you get 24-8 up, you should go on and win the game. "When you lose a bit of momentum you need to complete some sets and have a good kicking game but we didn't do that in the second half."
* PA Sport
