Surprise backing for Leeds Rhinos' Headingley stadium as England captain hails 'home of rugby league'

A sell out attendance of more than 20,000 will pack the ground on Saturday to see if England can avoid an Ashes series whitewash by Australia in the third ABK Beer Test. Williams reckons the atmosphere created by 52,000 fans at Everton FC’s Hill Dickinson Stadium was better than Wembley with 60,000 in the previous week - and he expects it to go up a level this weekend.

Headingley’s relatively small capacity made it a controversial choice for the third game, but Williams wants a raucous crowd tomorrow to give England a massive lift. He said: “It’s the home of rugby league in this country, I like to think. We’ll need 20,000 - or however many’s in there - to be rocking and we’ll try to get a win on the board.”

With Australia having taken the opening two matches, winning 26-6 at Wembley and 14-4 last week, the Ashes are staying Down Under and Williams admitted the England squad were left “deflated” after the defeat in Liverpool. However, he’s confident motivation won’t be a problem this weekend and there is still something vital to play for.

“We’re going to try to get some pride back,” he vowed. “We don’t want to be embarrassed 3-0. The squad is a lot better this series, we have improved so much and hopefully we can get one on the board. It’s a massive series and a massive event in this country, so we’ve got to get some pride back in the jersey.”

After being second best at Wembley, England took the game to Australia in the second encounter and were on top for much of the opening 40 minutes. The sides went in all squad at the break, but the Kangaroos scored two tries in five minutes soon afterwards to take total control.

Being “better in good ball” - attacking near Australia’s line - is the key area for improvement this week, according to the England skipper. He said: “We gave a good account of ourselves in the first half, but the second half was similar to the week before.

“We started slow, they scored two tries and that was the game. At this level you get stung if you are a little bit off and that’s what happened. I was proud of the performance, but it wasn’t quite good enough. Credit to Australia, they defended us really well.

“We didn’t really break them down much so that’s something we’ve got to work on. We got our plan right, kicking into corners and defending well, but we probably lacked a bit of quality and detail in good ball. There were some promising signs, but against a team as good as they are, if you’re not quite on with the ball it shows.”

England coach Shaun Wane has made only two changes to his 19-man squad, with Rhinos centre Harry Newman and Hull KR winger Joe Burgess replacing Jake Wardle and broken foot victim Dom Young.