Given that England have qualified for both previous Four Nations finals on home soil, under Tony Smith and Steve McNamara, it would be a blow to the coaching reputation of Wayne Bennett, Australia’s Sir Alex Ferguson equivalent, should his side fail to reach Anfield on November 20. Bennett, a serial winner in his homeland, was hired with next year’s World Cup in mind. The final is a minimum requirement for this quadrangular tournament, for which an opening loss has left England requiring wins over Scotland, by a substantial margin, on Saturday, then Australia, whose most recent defeat — other than by…

Source: The Times October 31, 2016 00:13 UTC