THERE were three Wolves players whose evening ended with them slumped on the Suncorp Stadium turf yesterday.

They gave it their all, but Chris Hill, Kevin Brown, Ben Currie and their England teammates could not stop Australia from retaining the Paul Barriere Trophy.

It was a bruising encounter, with the 6-0 scoreline demonstrating just how close the teams really were.

Of the Wire contingent, it will surely be skipper Hill who was most pleased with his performance in Brisbane.

He tore into the Australians from the very beginning alongside James Graham, making light of the battle up front with Aaron Woods and Dave Klemmer.

Hill, who has started every game in this World Cup, put in what many believed was his best performance of the tournament.

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Currie was the biggest beneficiary of England skipper Sean O'Loughlin's absence as he moved from the bench into the starting line-up.

He only made his England debut in the tournament opener against the Kangaroos, but did enough in Brisbane to show he has a bright future at international level.

Playing in the left-side second row position he has made his own at Wolves, Currie was lively when he did get his hands on the ball, which was less often than usual as England's preference to attack down the right edge was clear.

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After impressing so many during this tournament, Brown will perhaps be disappointed with his display in the showpiece finale.

The England attack, marshalled by him and Luke Gale in the halves as well as Gareth Widdop from full-back, never got going.

On most occasions that could be put down to poor execution, with England's error count way too high, and sometimes poor luck, such as Josh Dugan somehow tapping Kallum Watkins' ankles as he stormed through the line and looked set to put one of the runners on his inside on a free path to the try line.

The Australians also targeting Brown and Gale in defence, and it was the Wire man who was caught one-on-one with Boyd Cordner for the only try of the contest.

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All pictures by NRLPhotos