Josh Addo-Carr: Playing for Australia brings out the best in players

Australia winger Josh Addo-Carr insists pulling on the Kangaroos jersey always brings out the best in players after they went into an unassailable 2-0 lead over England in rugby league’s Ashes.

Australia followed up their first Test victory at Wembley with a hard-fought 14-4 win seven days later at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium against a vastly improved England side who were on top for much of the first period.

Australia defended strongly before flexing their muscles in attack with two tries in five minutes from Cameron Munster and Hudson Young.

Addo-Carr is one of the more senior figures in the Australia camp at 30 years old and with over 200 NRL games under his belt.

The winger has played in 15 State of Origin matches and Saturday’s game was his ninth Test match in the Green and Gold.

He says Australia have the best in the business after limiting England to just one try over the first two Tests so far.

He said: “Scrambling for each other is the most important thing, we know we can score points. They scored one try last week and we were disappointed with that so to keep them to no tries this week was good.

“We still have one more game to go and need to try and prepare the very best we can and hopefully give it a whitewash, it’s going to be a tough game next week.

“We knew it was going to be a hostile environment but the boys dug deep and stuck to the process when the pressure was on us and we got the result.

“We got the best players in the world and Kevin (Walters) reminds us of that. But our connection from the start of the camp to now shows how close we are as a group.

“They (England) are a tough side. We didn’t get everything right but our scramble in defence was the biggest standout for us.

“This is the pinnacle of rugby league, Origin is massive but when you put the Kangaroos jersey on you’re playing with the best players in the world, best player in your position in the world.”

England skipper George Williams could not hide his frustration after they failed to keep the Ashes alive in the first series in 22 years between the sides.

He admitted England need to restore pride in the jersey with a win in the third Test at Headingley next week.

He said: “We’re going to try and get some pride back, we don’t want to be embarrassed 3-0.

“We talked a lot about this series and have improved so much so hopefully we can get one on the board.

“Gutted, we came in to save the series so haven’t done that, a lot of lads are deflated in there but we gave it our all.

“Save the embarrassment of a 3-0 beating so there is a lot riding on it, massive event in this country so have to get some pride back in the jersey.”