Kangaroos wary of underdog Poms after unprecedented year of sporting upsets

DONALD Trump is the latest underdog to claim an “impossible” wins this year but the Kangaroos will do everything to end the run of fairytales in 2016, writes Mal Meninga.

Cameron Smith (R) and Sam Burgess will lead their teams out onto a packed London Olympic Stadium.

DONALD Trump became President of the United States of America this week, despite being a $13 outsider in a two-horse election race most experts and voter polls declared was impossible for him to win.

Earlier this year we saw Leicester City win the English Premier League despite being 2000-1 at the start of the season.

Rugby league’s Cronulla Sharks broke a 49-year title drought. AFL’s Western Bulldogs broke through with a premiership after 62 years.

Last week, baseball’s Chicago Cubs won the Major League World Series for the first time in 108 years. The last time the Cubs won it was the same year rugby league started in Australia.

I can assure you, the many milestone victories in this “year of the underdog” have not been lost on the coach of an Australian team rated as $1.30 favourites to win the Four Nations tournament in England.

I am not a believer in superstition by any stretch, but the remarkable run of against-the-odds victories this year serve as a much needed reminder of the dangers of favourites being too early in thinking a job is done.

The Kangaroos won’t be rugby league’s Hillary Clinton.

This weekend we face an England team that is under-siege, under pressure and under fire – all the ingredients for a good, old-fashioned ambush.

From our point of view in a situation like this, it is critical no part of your preparation if left to chance or assumption.

It only takes the tiniest crack of “close enough” or “it’ll be right” for attitude and intensity to develop terminal problems.

We know the England team we face on Monday morning (Qld time) in the final pool game will be a much different team than what we have seen in the first two rounds of the tournament.

They are fighting for their survival in this competition, under the spotlight from their fans and media to deliver results, with a coach who knows a thing or two about creating winning teams with a point to prove about the job that he is doing.

Wayne Bennett would be storing all the criticism he has copped for not promoting the code in England away and thinking “watch this”.

Beating Australia at a packed London Olympic Stadium would make all of England’s problems disappear.

History is on their side – not just the upsets of this year, but league’s recent past as well.

The last time England (not Great Britain) beat Australia was in 1995 – in London, at Wembley.

That game was 12 months after Great Britain beat the Kangaroos on the same ground. I remember it well. I was Australia’s captain that day.

We know all of this, which is why while everyone rates us as short-priced favourites we are working hard on every detail of our preparation knowing well and truly that we are not.

Cameron Smith (R) and Sam Burgess will lead their teams out onto a packed London Olympic Stadium.

And it is not just the players. Every member of the Australian coaching and off-field staff knows they have to be at their best this weekend. There can be no surprises because that is exactly what England are hoping for.

We are walking into an ambush, and we know it.

To make sure the players are fully focused on the job at hand this week, I gave them three days off to refresh themselves mentally on the condition that when we come back to work, we work.

Keeping players mentally fresh is part of the challenge with successful team, especially on long tours like this one.

But I’m aware it is a calculated gamble leading in to a match such as this.

We may be favourites with bookmakers, but in the year of the underdog, we are leaving nothing to chance.

Originally published as Kangaroos wary of underdog Poms after unprecedented year of sporting upsets