AHEAD of Friday’s Rugby League World Cup opener against Australia, Wolves’ England contingent have been discussing the task ahead.

With the tournament on home soil, the Kangaroos are heavily favoured to retain the trophy they won back in 2013 in England.

Sadly, Ben Currie will miss out on making his England debut in Melbourne as he was left out of the matchday squad.

However, he believes England would be “unstoppable” if they could open with a victory over their great rivals.

“There’s no better start in a way. We want to get straight in at the deep end and test ourselves,” he said.

“If we can come over and beat the Aussies, who can stop us then?

“It would knock their confidence down and show everyone that we’re not just here to take part, we’re here to win.”

Pundits in the Australian media do not give England much of a chance against Mal Meninga’s formidable side.

However, as Kevin Brown says, being written off is nothing new to this squad and he believes England have “nothing to lose.”

“It’s obviously a very tough start, we’re playing against the best team in the world and they will be massive favourites to win the tournament,” he said.

“We’re in their back yard as well on the other side of the world, but we’ve got nothing to lose.

“Everyone is writing us off and saying we’ve got no chance, but I really do believe in this squad.

“When I look round at the players, I think this is the best squad England has put together. I’m really confident we can turn up there and do a job on Australia.”

Brown also believes Wayne Bennett’s side can take inspiration from Wolves’ World Club Challenge victory over Brisbane, plus other successes over southern hemisphere sides in 2017.

“The Warrington lads in this squad got to play against Brisbane and there was a very similar theme running up to that. People gave us no chance,” he said.

“The Wigan lads did the same against Cronulla, then we all met up in May and did a really good job on Samoa.

“The pundits over there were saying it was the best Samoa side for years and that we had no chance again.”

“There’s a lot of confidence in this team. I like it when we get written off.”

Stefan Ratchford added: “What better way to kick off than going and beating Australia?

“Everyone has them down as the best team in the world, so we’ve got to go there and prove they’re not.

“If we want to achieve our goal and win the World Cup, we’ll have to beat them at some point.”