Nobody likes carrying the heavy weight of being tournament favorites, least of all England rugby league captain George Williams. As his squad prepares for a brutal World Cup opener against a star-studded Tonga side in Perth, Williams isn't dodging the label. He's leaning straight into it.
You can't blame him. Tonga brings a roster stacked with elite NRL talent, leaving most pundits writing off English chances before a boot even meets leather. But if you talk to players who've spent career-defining winters grinding through miserable, freezing conditions in northern England, traveling to the Australian heat as the unheralded side feels less like a disadvantage and more like a relief.
The Underdog Advantage
Let's be honest. England usually arrives at international tournaments burdened by massive expectations and predictable media pressure. Every flaw gets picked apart. Every past failure gets rehashed.
This time, the script looks completely different. Williams and head coach Brian McDermott are quietly content letting everyone else crown Tonga.
"We'll probably go into the match as underdogs," Williams admitted ahead of the clash. "Tonga are a stacked team and have been for a number of years now. We will have to bring our best game against a great team."
That kind of blunt realism is refreshing. It strips away the corporate fluff and gets straight to the point. When you aren't expected to win, the psychological shackles come off. You stop playing not to lose, and you start playing to shock people.
Navigating a Bizarre Tournament Format
It's not just the opposition keeping England on edge. Williams didn't hold back when discussing the tournament structure itself, calling it a "mad set-up" due to the complete absence of quarter-finals.
In a compressed pool stage where a single slip-up leaves you instantly under the pump, margin for error basically vanishes. Lose your opener against Tonga, and you're scrambling, relying on mathematical permutations and favors from other nations just to scrape into the semi-finals.
That high-stakes reality changes how teams prepare. Under McDermott, England has quietly cooked up some tactical wrinkles designed to catch opponents off guard. Don't expect a chaotic, throw-it-from-everywhere style, but do expect a few calculated surprises that weren't part of the playbook three years ago when England swept Tonga 3-0 on home soil.
Back then, freezing November conditions in Leeds played right into English hands. Temperatures hovered near minus two degrees, turning matches into attritional arm-wrestles. Perth in October offers a radically different ecosystem. The heat and humidity demand a faster, smarter approach to ball retention and energy conservation.
Extra Motivation for the Captain
For Williams personally, this tournament carries an extra layer of intrigue. He's set to join the Dolphins franchise for the 2027 season, putting him directly under the coaching umbrella of Kristian Woolf—who happens to be masterminding the Tongan challenge. On top of that, Williams will share a field and combination with young scrum-half Isaiya Katoa at club level next year.
For now, friendships and future employment take a backseat.
"It's like in any job, you want to impress on your first day and this is my chance to do that," Williams noted. "I'll try and play well in front of those two and against them."
What Actually Matters Now
Talk is cheap. Pre-match modesty won't stop powerhouse forwards from running hard lines through the middle of the pitch.
England needs more than just a clever underdog mindset. They need their forward pack to match Tonga's physicality, and they need their halves to execute under suffocating pressure from minute one. If they can weather the initial physical storm and keep the ball alive late in sets, that underdog tag might stop looking like a label and start looking like a prophecy.
The stage is set. Time to see if the bite matches the bark.
