Higham underlines England belief

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Tony Smith's men have yet to hit their straps, losing to both Australia and New Zealand in the preliminary stages, but Higham believes England are poised to silence their critics in Saturday's first semi-final against the Kiwis at Suncorp Stadium.

"There is still a lot of belief in this team. There are still two more weeks out here yet, definitely," said Higham. "There are probably a lot of people out there rubbing their hands, saying England have no chance, but we know we've got a great chance."

England are still smarting after letting slip a 24-8 lead against New Zealand in their final pool game in Newcastle, eventually going down 36-24, and Smith has called on his players to channel that anger into their preparation for the semi-final re-match.

Higham added: "We were disappointed because we know we're better than that. In the first 35 minutes we controlled the game and went 24 points up and you should never lose a game from that position.

"We should have played smart and snuffed them out of the game. They got their heads up, got on a bit of a roll and showed what they can do.

"We know we're capable of delivering better than that. If we had had a decent second-half performance we would have won comfortably, so I think we can take some stuff out of it."