Last updated 11:38, Friday, 07 November 2008

West Cumbria’s former GB star Arnold ‘Boxer’ Walker has written off England’s RL World Cup hopes ahead of tomorrow’s clash with New Zealand.

And the ex-Whitehaven and Workington Town scrum-half warned he believes there is more to come from Australia, the tournament favourites who hammered England 52-4 last weekend.

“Australia have another two gears. They didn’t break sweat against us,” said Walker, who featured in four consecutive Lancashire Cup finals for Town from 1976, later joining Haven for a whopping £30,000 fee.

“When I was playing, you had to go down the pit at five in the morning. Now they’ve got their act together and are full-time players, but we still haven’t caught up with the Australians.

“It hasn’t made any difference. Let’s be honest, internationals shouldn’t be getting beat by 50 points. There are no excuses, we just aren’t good enough. Our players are really good club lads but that’s as far as it goes. Internationals are a different league.”

The former No 7, who in his heyday led Open Rugby magazine’s prestigious world rankings, topped the tackle count for Great Britain in their battling 10-2 win over New Zealand at Leeds in November, 1980. But he fears there will be no repeat against the Kiwis tomorrow.

“You have to say we’ve played two matches and not impressed anybody,” he continued.

Walker is against any proposal to cut the overseas quota in a bid to boost the domestic game.

“If I was there today, I’d love to be playing with half a dozen foreigners, as they’d bring the best out in me,” he said.

Ex-Haven stand-off Rob Purdham is set to follow in Walker’s footsteps tomorrow when he makes his senior England debut in their final group match, a dress rehearsal for the World Cup semi-final a week later.

National coach Tony Smith said: “There will be quite a few new faces, some due to knocks and injuries, but I also want to give some people an opportunity to show what they can do.

“We want to create some competition and we’re keen to give a shot to all the players who haven’t had one. Some of them may be in different positions to what they have been used to.

“Some of these boys have been sitting there for a couple of weeks and now they’ve got their opportunity.

“They’ve been terrific in training and shown tremendous team spirit. I expect they’ll be jumping out of their skins and bring a lift to the team with their enthusiasm.”