George Williams has admitted England are underdogs in their clash with Tonga, while also questioning the World Cup format.

Tonga are the favourites with the bookies in Saturday’s World Cup round one clash with Brian McDermott’s side, with a pelthora of NRL talent in their squad.

England, meanwhile, have lost a number of players to withdrawals and injury, with Morgan Smithies and Morgan Knowles being forced to pull out this week alone.

“We’ll probably go into the match as underdogs,” Williams admitted. “Tonga are a stacked team and have been for a number of years now. We will have to bring our best game tomorrow night against a great team.”

In the build-up to the tournament, the format has been highly scrutinised, with groups B & C taking on a cross format in which only two of six teams go through.

That has put emphasis on England needing to beat Tonga in this game, or potentially having their progression to the next round out of their hands.

“It’s a mad set-up, I don’t know how they’ve worked it out with no quarter-finals, but we’ve just got to win our games and do our job and it starts tomorrow.

“I know everyone will say the same thing, but I do think this group is hungry. I’m not going to tell you all the tricks, but it’s been different and enjoyable. The group has bought into what Brian wants to do, and hopefully you’ll see that on Saturday.”

England and Williams have had plenty of heartbreak over the years. Williams hopes this is the end of that.

“You try not to dwell on things too much, but it does sit there. You can’t hide away from what happened, but what it can do is give you drive and motivation and there are numerous players within the group that have felt that.

“This tournament has been a long time coming. We’ve got a massive test in front of us, but I think we’re ready.

“We know we’ve not got the job done for a long, long time, so we’re going to have to do something special, but we’ll leave no stone unturned and we’ll give it our best crack.”