Samoa boss Matt Parish has say on England ahead of rematch as he praises how well supported the World Cup is

Samoa are headed to a first ever Rugby League World Cup semi-final as they prepare for a rematch up against England at the Emirates Stadium next Saturday.

They booked their place against Shaun Wane’s England with a 20-18 win over Tonga at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium this evening.

Now they reunited with England, the side they met in the tournament opener. Samoa went into that game as the favourites but were blown away 60-6 in a result that led to a full inquest into what went wrong for the Samoans.

But now they can look ahead to righting those wrongs in the a first ever semi-final.

After the game, coach Matt Parish spoke to the BBC about the win over Tonga: “There wasn’t much between either team, Tonga through plenty at us but yeah there wasn’t much between either team”.

He also revealed what he said at halftime: “That they had the chance to make history and make a semi-final. But I didn’t have to say much, they know what to do.”

One of the reasons Samoa went into that opener against England as favourites was due to the number of star players in their squad, and Parish had big praise for his key players tonight: “I thought our two halves were sensational but I’ve got to give credit to Joseph at fullback, at 19 years of age, he had a sensational game.”

When asked about England, he simply said: “I haven’t thought about it yet, we’re going to enjoy this and we’ll worry about it tomorrow.”

This prompted the question, ‘can you beat England?’

“I hope so” – was his simple response.

That wasn’t the last thing he had to say as he praised the tournament as a whole: “I think the support this generated around the world shows what a great tournament the World Cup is. The support is unbelievable.”