Peacock problem a worry for England

Jamie Peacock
12 April 2012

England are anxiously awaiting the results of a scan on captain Jamie Peacock amid fears he could miss Saturday's do-or-die Gillette Four Nations clash with New Zealand.

The veteran Leeds forward went off after taking a heavy bang to his knee in the first half of Saturday's 36-20 defeat by Australia, although he bravely applied strapping and went back on in the second half after England also suffered injuries to James Graham and Gareth Ellis.

St Helens prop Graham and Wests Tigers second-rower Ellis, who both experienced lower-back spasms, are expected to recover in time for the final group game at the KC Stadium but Peacock remains a major worry.

England coach Steve McNamara, who was able to field the same team for three weeks in a row, is due to name his line-up at a press conference on Wednesday but may delay the announcement by 24 hours to give his captain more time to recover.

England and New Zealand are level on points after beating Wales and losing to Australia and also have the same points difference, but the Kiwis have a superior points percentage and, therefore, need only a draw on Saturday to go through to a meeting with the Kangaroos in the Elland Road final on November 19.

"It's straight knockout now for us," said Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield, who says England can draw plenty of encouragement from their battling performance against Australia at Wembley.

"We can take some confidence from Saturday. At times we troubled the Aussies and it would be great to get another crack at them.

"We know we've got to do better. We needed to improve a whole lot on what we did against Wales and we weren't quite there in some areas.

"We know the standard now. I thought we troubled the Aussies in some aspects but we weren't disciplined enough and paid the price."

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