The eyes of the rugby league world remains on The Ashes series this week as England and Australia head up to Liverpool for the second match of the three with the Hill Dickinson Stadium the venue for the middle game of proceedings.
Australia were comfortable winners of the opening game of the series and can claim the spoils with another victory here. If England are to go to Headingley next weekend with the series still alive then this is a match that they have to win.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC One channel with the build-up beginning at 2pm ahead of the kick off at 2.30pm.
England
England will have been disappointed with their performance in the opening game of the series. There was a lot of hype around that match but they just didn’t live up to the expectations and they will need a massive improvement in pretty much all departments if they are going to take this series to a deciding match in Leeds next week. The good thing for England is that they have tasted the occasion now and know what they are coming up against for real.
England will know that they have to defend their try line a lot better than they did in that opening match but they need to build pressure much better than they did and then when the chances come they have to show a clinical edge. They did create try scoring opportunities last week but they were not clinical enough to take them which will have disappointed Shaun Wane. It will be interesting to see if they throw the ball around more here in a bid to get back into the series.
Australia
Australia were comfortable winners of the opening game but they will know they were nowhere near their best. They were always likely to come on for the run to use a racing term so the fact that they came away from the opening game winning as easily as they did will certainly give them plenty of confidence going into this second game, which is their first chance to seal the series and make the final match in Leeds next week a victory parade for themselves.
Defensively Australia were as solid as you would expect them to be in that first test match, although a couple of times Reece Walsh had to save try scoring efforts. Where the Kangaroos will be keen to improve is when they have the ball in hand. They dropped a number of passes and blew a couple of scoring opportunities of their own as a result. A repeat of that opening performance might well be enough to get the job done here but their own pride will want to see an improvement.
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Team News
Shaun Wane was always going to need to make changes to his England side for this encounter and the big one is that Jack Welsby has been dropped which means that A.J. Brimson will begin the game at full-back. John Bateman is injured while Harry Smith, Kallum Watkins and Morgan Smithies are in line to come in.
Australia coach Kevin Walters has been forced into a change in his 17 for the match with his captain Isaiah Yeo failing a HIA at Wembley last week which rules him out of this one. Lindsay Collins moves into the starting line up and Lindsay Smith comes in on the bench.
Betting
You would expect a response from England in this match because they didn’t give a true account of themselves at all in that opening game but their problem is that Australia are likely to be a great deal better too. That should see Australia secure the series here but the bookmakers are all over that and I’m not really that keen on taking the Aussies on a handicap when they might subconsciously ease up when the game, and in turn the series, is won, opening up the potential for a back door cover.
I think we are going to see a higher scoring game than we did in that opening match. Both teams know what it is all about now and I expect to see a more clinical edge to both of them. England might feel that they need to throw the ball around a bit in order to get back into the series which will create chances but might also leave them more vulnerable. The line for this one is 37.5 which would have been covered if either side were an ounce more clinical last week. I think they make up for it here.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
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