Mike Cooper reflects on England's Rugby League World Cup opener and reveals minor injury

Mike Cooper says the England squad showed “a lot of heart” in their victory over Samoa.
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The Wigan Warriors prop featured for Shaun Wane’s side in the 60-6 victory at St James’ Park in the opening game of the Rugby League World Cup on Saturday.

Cooper believes there is plenty more to come from England throughout the tournament.

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He said: “I’m very proud of the boys and all the staff, because everyone was writing us off and talking about the opposition.

Mike Cooper (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images for RLWC)Mike Cooper (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images for RLWC)
Mike Cooper (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images for RLWC)

“We have a hell of a lot of heart, and we showed that.

“We just went about our business and stuck to our game plan. We completed well and competed hard.

People have been talking about the size difference. Yeah, we are a smaller team, but we’ve got a massive ticker and we will keep going.

“We kept putting pressure on them, and in the end it broke them.

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“We won’t get carried away by this because it’s only one result, but I’m so proud and we deserved it.

“The more time we spend together, the better we will be. We’ll be loads better next week than we were today, we’ll keep improving.”

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After the game, Cooper had strapping around his wrist after picking up an injury in the game.

“I just copped it in the first tackle of the game,” he added.

“We’re not too sure about it at the moment, but we’ll see.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll be rotating the squad anyway but we’ll see how it goes.”