CHRIS Hill admits the prospect of facing Australia in the Rugby League World Cup – but says it’s nothing new to him.

Wire skipper Hill will start at prop for Wayne Bennett’s side as they look to wrestle the Paul Barriere Trophy from the Kangaroos’ grasp at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

Teammates Kevin Brown and Ben Currie have also been named in England’s squad for the game.

“I’m nervous before every game, it doesn’t matter whether I’m going to Siddal away,” he said.

“If I’m not nervous, I’ll quit, I’ll finish rugby league.

“I get nervous before every game and they’ll probably be jangling but the lads have been in these situations.

“They’ve won NRL Grand Finals, Super Leagues and Challenge Cups.

“The mood in the camp is as you’d expect, it’s World Cup final week.

“Everyone’s buzzing. We had a down day yesterday and we’ve done a bit today to try and get the bodies back right and we’ll be ready and raring to go come Saturday.”

Hill has started all five of England’s games so far and is one of the side’s most experienced players.

He arrived at the World Cup having been part of a Wolves side that failed to qualify for the Super League’s Super 8s in 2017.

That meant they were forced to fight for their place in next year’s competition in the Middle 8s and they survived comfortably, but the prop says he has learned a lot about himself as a result.

“It is a long way from Featherstone, Halifax and London but experiences like that make these a whole lot better,” he said.

“You have to go through some of those experiences and I’m just looking forward to ending the season on a high.

“You have to learn more about more about yourself through the bad times, you’re going to have times through your career where things don’t go for you.

“There were probably times through the pool stages where things probably didn’t go for us but you’ve got to dig through them.

“We’ve come out the other side and we’ve landed ourselves in the World Cup final.”

Hill was on the field when England went from a comfortable 20-0 lead with seven minutes of their semi final against Tonga remaining to conceding three tries in five minutes and coming within a hair’s breadth of losing the game.

England held on despite a frantic finish to win 20-18 and Hill believes surviving that major scare will stand them in good stead when they face Mal Meninga’s fearsome Australian side.

“No words that went through my mind in the last seven minutes against Tonga are printable,” he said.

“We’ve had a look at that and it will stand us in good stead at the weekend if it comes to that. I know it was nervy but it was a good experience.

“We were the best side for 74 minutes but when Tonga got a roll on, we just needed to slow our game down. It all got a bit rushed.

“We took encouragement from it in that we held them out.”