England half-back Rangi Chase says they will not take Ireland lightly as they look to bounce back from the disappointing defeat against Australia.
England suffered a 28-20 defeat at the hands of Australia in their opening game of the Rugby League World Cup in Cardiff and Chase says it is crucial they bounce back.
Next up is a clash with Ireland and after suffering a shock defeat against Italy in the final friendly clash ahead of the tournament, Chase says they have learned their lesson.
England play the Irish in Huddersfield on Saturday, and Chase said: “Every game in this competition is going to be tough. You saw that last week with us. We didn’t turn up against Italy and we lost.”
Meanwhile, Chase says England have to take the positives out of the defeat to Australia, a game they were leading 10-0 before the opposition ran in four tries in a crucial 18-minute spell.
Chase believes England are capable of beating Australia and is now hoping they get another chance to face them.
The defeat at the weekend means England are on course for a semi-final showdown with holders New Zealand and they may not get another crack at the Australians.
“We troubled them with the ball,” said Chase. “We’ve got some big boys and some of them are hard to handle but defensively we’ve got things to fix up.
“We believe we can beat them but we made mistakes at crucial times. A couple of times we let them off the hook. We can take some positives out of it but we let the pressure off at crucial times. If we clean up a few small things, we’ll go close to beating anyone.”
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