WARRINGTON Wolves’ Ben Currie was among the scorers as England progressed to the Rugby League World Cup semi finals against Tonga at the expense of Papua New Guinea in Melbourne.

Less than five minutes after entering play off the bench he called for a kick in open space from Gareth Widdop and cleanly finished off the first try of the second half for a 20-0 lead that killed off any slight chance of a fightback from the Kumuls.

England, with two tries apiec from the dangerous right-edge combo of Jermaine McGillvary and Kallum Watkins, went on to win 36-6.

The Wire’s Kevin Brown did not feature in the second half after sustaining a head injury, with Josh Hodgson switching from hooker to the halves, but even so England had too much size and pace for a PNG side playing its first game of the tournament outside of their own country where they had been so dominant against less established teams.

England’s display was ropey overall though, making 20 errors and completing only 25 of their 45 sets with the ball.

They will need to do much better against Tonga in Auckland next Saturday, kick off 5am (UK time), in order to face Australia or Fiji in the final in Brisbane a week later.

England: Gareth Widdop; Jermain McGillvary, Kallum Watkins, John Bateman, Ryan Hall; Kevin Brown, Luke Gale; Chris Hill, Josh Hodgson, James Graham, Elliott Whitehead, Sam Burgess, Sean O’loughlin. Subs: Alex Walmsley, Thom Burgess, Ben Currie, James Roby.