Tom Briscoe says England can beat Australia in Four Nations final

Winger Tom Briscoe believes England can find the extra gear needed to beat Australia in Saturday's Four Nations final.

England lost 36-20 against the Kangaroos in their second game of the tournament but beat New Zealand 28-6 to reach the final.

"In big games you need to step up to go to that special place where you haven't been before," Briscoe said.

"We've been improving steadily and that's been the main aim."

England's performance against the holders, New Zealand, has given them the belief they can win the tournament, but Briscoe realises they will have to improve further in front of a sell-out crowd at Elland Road.



"We know we've still got to improve a lot to win this game," said Briscoe. But we think we're capable of doing that with the squad we've got.

"Things are going well. As a team, we're performing pretty well and I think we can take a lot of confidence out of that [New Zealand] performance."

England have traditionally been strong in the forward positions but the emergence of Briscoe, Ryan Hall and Sam Tomkins has added an extra dimension to their back division, with the trio scoring 12 of the team's 22 tries in the last four matches.

Hall scored twice in the defeat to Australia at Wembley and is on the shortlist for the tournament's Golden Boot award, with Briscoe also a contender.

"These past two games have been my best performances for England and hopefully I can carry that on and have a big game," Briscoe added.

While Saturday's final represents the first showpiece event of 21-year-old Briscoe's international career, for Australia's Darren Lockyer it represents the last match of an illustrious 17 years as a professional player.

The 34-year-old, who has broken numerous records during a career that has seen him play for Queensland, Brisbane Broncos and the Kangaroos, has already concluded his club career, and is now focused on making his final ever appearance a winning one.

"I've had a bit of practice with the last game thing back home," he said. With every game the focus has always been the footie, not the fact that it's my last game.

Because of what's at stake on Saturday, it allows you to distance yourself from the emotion. It's more about the focus on the footie.

"It's not all about me. I have a job to do for my country and that is to help us beat England. I'll approach this game the same way I have approached every big game in my career."

However, Lockyer, who looks set to hand over the captaincy reins to Cameron Smith after his final 80 minutes in green and gold, is only too aware his swansong could be an unhappy one.

"In every game you fear failure," he added. We have prepared as well as we can this week to give it our best performance on Saturday. That's all you can do, the outcome looks after itself.

"You've got to be prepared for defeat as well, because there's a chance of that happening.
"I can tell from an outsider looking in that England are very focused at the moment. They look like they're doing a lot of things right and they believe in themselves.

"It's a committed team and they're playing in front of their home crowd so that is going to make it very difficult for us."