Samoa star has ominous warning for England as he dismisses talk of rift in camp

Samoa are out for revenge in the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals as they take on England at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow as Samoa look to right the wrongs of their 60-6 defeat in the opening game of the tournament.

This sparked more questions over coach Matt Parish who the players reportedly tried to remove from the role a year earlier with James Graham even revealing that Sonny Bill Williams nearly took over.

However, Josh Papalii has dismissed claims that there was a rift between the coaching staff and the players.

“I’ve got a good relationship with the coach and always have,” Papalii told Fox League.

“We definitely enjoy ourselves away from the field but on the field we focus.”

Meanwhile, he reflected on that opening defeat to England and ominously promised that Samoa would be prepared for England this time: “It’s just a shame the first game went like that but because we worked pretty hard leading up to that week.

“We’ve finally been in camp for enough time to build combinations and I felt like we turned up against Tonga and the boys dug deep for each other.

“We just have to play our kind of footy this week. That first game we let that game get away from us but we’ll be prepared for sure.”