WOLVES’ Ben Westwood is keeping his mind on the next task for England rather than getting carried away with thoughts of a fifth Wembley appearance.
The pathway to a semi-final showdown with New Zealand or Scotland in London on November 23 is now clear but England’s leading tackler this tournament is not looking beyond France at Wigan’s DW Stadium on Saturday, kick off 8pm.
His goals remain firm though, a win in the final at Old Trafford on November 30.
“We’ve got a quarter final to get through first and to win this tournament you’ve got to beat some pretty good teams, so why not beat them all,” said Westwood, a three-times Challenge Cup winner at Wembley with Wolves but he lost there with England against Australia in 2011’s Four Nations event.
Holders New Zealand and England are clear favourites to progress from the quarter finals though and Westwood suggested the hosts can challenge the Kiwis like no others in the tournament so far.
He added: “I watched a bit of their game against Papua New Guinea on Friday night and they are a good team.
“They’ve got some class players, with Sonny Bill Williams among them.
“And they’ve got some dangerous players that you do need to keep an eye on.”
Westwood says England will take confidence from both halves against Fiji at Hull’s KC Stadium at the weekend – the opening period in which they drew 6-6 and the second stanza in which they pulled away to a 34-12 success.
It was his first try in 21 senior England appearances, off a Kevin Sinfield offload, that finally got the scoreboard rolling for Steve McNamara’s men.
“I think it did come at the right time, just before half time and it got us on a bit of a roll,” he said.
“It showed us what we needed to do to score, running good lines and taking the line on with the half backs. It put us in good stead for the rest of the game.
“It was a great win, one that we wanted. We’ve had a couple of tough games going into the quarter finals and I think it’s the right way forward for us.”
Westwood is available after having no case to answer for alleged use of the forearm in a 75th minute incident that led to him going on report.
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