The result means, in order to reach the semi-finals, England will have to defeat France on Saturday (07:35 BST) and Papua New Guinea on Friday, 30 October (09:05 GMT) and also see other results go in their favour.

Their task has been made all the more difficult by Samoa’s thumping 78-4 win over France, which means England’s points difference is 92 worse than that of Ben Gardiner’s team in a combined Pool B and C table.

The format features an unbalanced group stage, which has not helped England’s prospects.

Pool A has four teams – Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands – fighting for two semi-final places in a round-robin format.

But Pools B and C are combined into one six-team league, from which only the top two will make the semi-finals. England, drawn in Pool B, are playing the three Pool C teams – Tonga, France and Papua New Guinea.

It means that while England are in deep trouble after one defeat, New Zealand still have a strong chance of making the last four despite losing to favourites Australia in a high-quality opening match.

“The jeopardy of losing one game is so harsh, it’s almost like we don’t get another chance to straighten things out,” added McDermott.

“There’s still a slim chance that we get through, and that’s something we’re focusing on and we’re really determined.

“New Zealand have lost their first game as well, but they’re going to get another go at it and the likelihood is they’ll qualify, so their destiny is not lying in other people’s hands. That’s not the position we find ourselves in.”

McDermott has named an unchanged 19-man squad for the game against France but has confirmed that Warrington’s Matty Ashton will start in place of Wigan’s Zach Eckersley on the wing.

The England head coach made clear he did not want to criticise either the hosts or the organisers for the tournament’s unusual format.

Instead, he pointed out that it resulted from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea having to step in at short notice after France pulled out of hosting the tournament for financial reasons.

He added: “I’m trying to be diplomatic here. If France had held the World Cup, there would have been more teams in it. It would have had the usual pools for the teams.

“You’ve got to give Australia a lot of credit for taking it on the last minute.

“But because they (France) haven’t, I completely understand that it has to be reduced to a 10-team competition, which is not the easiest thing to do and then we end up in situations like this.”



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