Rugby League World Cup: Castleford Tigers boss Lee Radford backing Samoa to shatter England's dream

Radford was appointed as an assistant to Samoa coach Matt Parish in September, focusing on defence, but also providing tips on England’s Super League-based players who he coached against all year.

The Hull-born Tigers boss’ close knowledge of the England squad will be a crucial part of Samoa’s preparations this week as they bid to reach their first World Cup final.

England are two victories away from becoming the tournament’s first European winners since Great Britain half a century ago, but will face a resurgent Samoa side this weekend in north London.

Radford was capped six times by England from 2001-2006 and will be cheering them on if the hosts are in the final at Old Trafford on Saturday, November 19, but there are no divided loyalties this weekend.

“I am all in, I desperately want to win something with this group,” Radford stated. “They are a fantastic group to be around and to be involved with.

“If we don’t win it, I’d obviously love England to, but make no bones, I am wanting to get the result on Saturday.”

The semi-final pits Radford against his close mate and Tigers assistant-coach Andy Last, who is part of England’s backroom staff under team boss Shaun Wane.

The duo worked together at Hull before moving to West Yorkshire, but friendship has been put on hold for the duration of the tournament.

“There’s not been any banter, we have kept professional,” Radford said. “He has obviously done a great job there.

“We stopped talking about the World Cup about three weeks before it began, just when we got involved.”

This weekend will be the nations’ second meeting of the World Cup, following England’s stunning 60-6 win at Newcastle in round one.

Wane’s side went into that as many pundits’ underdogs, but turned on the style with a 10-try performance which left Samoa chasing shadows.

Radford admitted the nature of the defeat was a shock, but felt there were mitigating factors for the Pacific nation, who have reached the semi-finals for the first time.

He said: “I think as a group we didn’t expect to be bang at it on round one, with the preparation we’d had.

“Half the squad had only trained twice with us and some of them had just won the [NRL] Grand Final. If you look at their social media you’ll appreciate how hard they celebrated that.

“We expected to be under-cooked, but obviously the manner of the loss was the most disappointing thing.

“Having said that, I think England had probably the best preparation going into the World Cup.

“They had four or five in-season get-togethers, they had a mid-season game, the Knights and the England team trained together and they had a pre-season friendly.

“I think at this moment in time they look the best team in the competition. Not individually on paper, but they look the most cohesive and that is to be expected because of the amount of contact they’ve had with each other.”

Samoa have improved week on week since their disastrous start, beating Greece and France in the group phase and stunning Tonga last weekend to reach the semi-finals.

Radford insists they are “massive” underdogs against England, but feels their NRL-based players are getting to grips with a different style of play.

He said: “The NRL is different to Super League, what you can get away with in the ruck over here, you simply can’t get away with over there.

“Our ruck control has progressively got better throughout the competition and hopefully it’ll be at its very best on Saturday.

“In the first game it took the NRL lads totally by surprise, but hopefully we are going to be better for that.”

Saturday’s winners will face either Australia or New Zealand, who meet on Friday in the first semi-final at Leeds United’s Elland Road.