Since the expanded format was introduced in 1995, England have only made the Rugby League World Cup Final once. They’ve been losing semi-finalists in the last three tournaments and their prospects of doing any better this year look remote with Wayne Burnett’s squad missing arguably two of their best players in Zak Hardaker and Sam Tomkins.
Tomkins has suffered an injury-hit campaign so his exclusion could have been foreseen but Hardaker’s absence could not have been predicted even a week ago. Unfortunately, the Castleford full-back has since failed a drugs test which meant he missed the Grand Final on Saturday, his club’s first appearance in domestic rugby’s biggest game of the year, and he now faces a likely two-year ban.
That’s going to make it even tougher for England in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea but fans of the Lions can get 10/1 with 10Bet that they return home with the trophy.
Bennett has opted to take 14 forwards and just 10 backs to Australia, including only two specialist wingers in Ryan Hall and Jermaine McGillvary – Ben Currie and Alex Walmsley are the two new faces in the England squad. England will fly out from Manchester on Thursday for a 10-day intensive training camp in Perth and will play a warm-up match against an Affiliated States team on October 20 in preparation for their opening group game against holders and favourites Australia in Melbourne a week later.
Rugby League World Cup 2017 Current Best Odds
Australia 1/4
England 10/1
New Zealand 10/1
Tonga 25/1
Samoa 66/1
Fiji 150/1
Papua New Guinea 250/1
Scotland 500/1
Wales 500/1
Ireland 750/1
Lebanon 750/1
Italy 1000/1
France 1000/1
USA 1000/1
