Peacock: We can ruffle Kiwi feathers

England captain Jamie Peacock insists his side have learned their lessons from last week's second-half horror show against New Zealand and are ready to exact their revenge when it counts.

England face their biggest match for eight years when they take on the Kiwis at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Saturday for a place in the World Cup final.

Tony Smith's squad have undergone plenty of soul-searching after frittering away a 24-8 lead in their final pool match in Newcastle and Peacock is promising a major improvement. "It's not gone, you can learn from it," said Peacock.

He added: "That's professional sport. Some weeks you're going to lose, some weeks you're going to win.

"It's how you react after a loss and what you do in that week. We're ready to put things right."

England have adopted a siege mentality in the face of some fierce criticism of their performances in the group stages and Smith has pointedly refused to clarify his team selection.

There are still fitness issues to resolve and some men clearly played themselves out of contention in the 36-24 defeat last Saturday.

But Smith is able to recall current Man of Steel, James Graham, and his immediate predecessor, James Roby, after resting them for the "dress rehearsal".

Despite a series of below-par performances, Smith remains optimistic and has no doubts what his side need to do better at Suncorp Stadium.

"Play two halves, hopefully," he said. "We did enough good things to encourage us. They're a very good team but I think we showed enough signs that are encouraging for us. We've still got a lot of hope."