单篇博客

Some of Brian McDermott's players won't return to England until a week after their early departure from the competition.

By No Helmets Required

England players would have done well to ignore the billboard outside their North Bay accommodation in Wollongong over the weekend. "Everything that truly matters is possible," it stated. Not quite everything, as it turned out. While the England women's team packed up and left Australia the morning after their World Cup run was ended by a slick Samoa side, the England men's squad remains stuck on the sidelines of a party they've been told to leave. After their fate was sealed during Sunday's Tonga vs. Samoa match, England relocated to Sydney, but some players won't return home until Friday, a full week after their World Cup concluded.

It could have been worse. They've been staying with views of Wollongong's beautiful beaches, where the distinctly salty scent of seaweed drifts in with the bay's mist. Surfers in the squad could take a hundred steps from their rooms and be in the water, while players with families in town have been able to start their end-of-season holidays early. When Wigan teammates Junior Nsemba and Zach Eckersley look back on their World Cup trip, they might recall spending afternoons riding e-scooters along Cliff Road or strolling on North Beach, rather than facing Tonga, France, and Papua New Guinea. With beaches, cafes, and stunning lilac jacaranda trees on every street, there are worse places for dreams to end. But most England players and staff are simply eager to get home.