Here's how England could still qualify for Rugby League World Cup semi-finals

Coach Brian McDermott’s side take on France in Perth, Western Australia, on Saturday a week after a 30-12 defeat by Tonga on the same ground in their opening tie. They will be hot favourites to beat the French, who were hammered 78-4 by Samoa in their first fixture, but defeat would be a fatal blow to their hopes of progressing.

The 10-team tournament features two pools, with Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and Cook Islands in group A and the rest in a combined division B and C. The top two from each will progress through to the semi-finals and the others go home.

To stay alive, England need to win their next two matches, against France and PNG and also hope other results go their way. Assuming England finish on four points, they will progress if either Tonga or Samoa lose both their remaining games, which is highly unlikely. Friday sees Tonga take on minnows Lebanon and Samoa face PNG, before the Pacific nations clash in round three, on Sunday, November 1.

PNG kicked off with a 42-18 victory against Lebanon and would do England a huge favour if they shocked Samoa. That would open the possibility of a quartet of teams finishing on two wins, bringing past results and points difference into play.

Under the, frankly quite bizarre, format, if teams finish level on points the outcome of their previous meeting in the tournament takes precedence over for and against. So, for example, Tonga already have the edge on England because of last week’s outcome.

If that doesn’t sort it all out, points difference will be used. However, should results go as expected, Tonga, Samoa and England will all win this weekend. In that case, England will need Tonga to win the Islands’ big round three clash and hope they can overhaul Samoa on points difference. Even that is a huge ask as England are currently 92 adrift on that measurement, so - while they can still dream - an early exit appears inevitable.