When George Williams broke clear to create Herbie Farnworth’s second try to tie the game at 26-all in yesterday’s Rugby League World Cup semi-final, it looked like England had pulled off the great escape as they had all the momentum going into golden point.
This momentum ultimately faded and Williams, despite some fantastic touches, was left on the wrong side of the scoreline.
As they lost to a golden point drop goal from Stephen Crichton, Williams and his team were left devasted.
He admitted that the fact it will likely be some of his teammates’ last tournaments made it worse: “Not really no, I’d rather win. It’s a tough one to take, some heart broken people in there. It’s some people’s first tournament and probably some people’s last.
“It’s been one of the best six weeks of my life, but we fell short which is the most disappointing thing.”
He also admitted that the pain will stick with him until the next World Cup: “Till the next World Cup probably. That will sit with us, especially me for three years. That’s the heart breaking things. Some of us will never play in a World Cup again.”
Williams also assessed the defeat: “When we got the ball we did things we wanted to and stick to the process and then we’d make an error and let them out of their own end.
“They’ve got too many good players to be off today but we were a little bit off today.
“We needed to be eight or nine out of ten and we weren’t but we have been all tournament which is the most disappointing thing.
“Of course, we had the momentum but we made two errors. We panicked a bit in Golden Point. We were our own worst enemy.”