Australian coach Tim Sheens will step up preparations for the Rugby League World Cup when he flies to the UK and Ireland later this month.
Having been axed by the NRL’s Wests Tigers last year, Sheens can give his full attention to the Kangaroos’ campaign to regain the trophy that eluded Australia on home soil in the 2008 final against New Zealand.
Sheens will take in the World Club Challenge clash between Leeds and Melbourne at Headingley on February 22.
He says this will give him an early opportunity to check several of the players who’ll make up the England team Australia will face in the tournament opener at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on October 26.
The 63-year-old will then fly to Ireland where Australia play their last group game at Thomond Park rugby union ground in Limerick.
“We’ve not been to Ireland before so it’s important to become familiar with what awaits us,” Sheens told AAP.
“How far the hotel is from the ground, whether the training pitches that have been allocated to us are up to standard, that kind of thing.
“By going there early, any changes we might want to suggest can be done now rather than getting there and finding it’s not what we want.
“We’ve obviously been to Manchester before and also London so that is not so much of an issue, but it’s important that we leave no stone unturned as the pressure will be on us to win the World Cup.”
The four-time premiership-winning coach is still keen to get back into the NRL after the World Cup campaign but said prising the trophy from the hands of the Kiwis would rank among the highlights of his 27-year career.
“When I took the job in 2009, I said my target was to have all of the trophies in our cabinet, after the 2013 World Cup,” he said.
“We have the Four Nations and now we want the World Cup. We are expected to win it and the pressure is all on us.
“New Zealand are technically the holders, but it will us who’ll be favourites and we have to deal with that. But we have the issue of the Anzac Test to deal with first in Canberra in April.
“England have shown in the past on their home soil they are very hard to beat when they play us and New Zealand.
“I know (coach) Steve McNamara has been planning for the last two years for this and they’ll be very difficult opponents.”
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