Coach Aston says Ireland can ruin World Cup for the hosts

Although his own side were beaten in their opener by Fiji on Monday, as England were by Australia, Aston knows there is no expectancy on the Wolfhounds when they clash at Huddersfield.

But the home side, who have suffered a shock friendly loss to Italy, in-house disciplinary problems and defeat to Australia, are in desperate need for a win.

“They need to win and, if they were to lose three games on the bounce, they’re under the pump because that Fijian team are pretty handy,” said Aston.

“The pressure is certainly on them. They’ve had a bit of turmoil over the last couple of weeks, haven’t they?

“Can they handle the added pressure they’re putting on themselves with what’s happened in camp?

“We’ve got a smile on our faces. There is no expectation on us, except from ourselves.

“We want to be a lot better than we were on Monday. We are expecting to raise the bar and we are expecting to come away with the result.”

That is a bold claim from Aston but given some shock results so far, the Sheffield Eagles coach sees no reason why it cannot be fulfilled.

“We got a lot of belief out of the Fiji game,” he said, his side having lost 32-14 at Rochdale.

“We looked at the review with a lot of confidence. We weren’t far off.

“It’s been a quick turnaround and we were battered and bruised in that encounter, but these guys are really passionate about this match.

“It’s a full house and for some of these guys it will be their biggest game.”

Aston highlighted the performance of Canberra Raiders prop Brett White as a potential galvanising factor for his side.

“If we can get a bit of inspiration from Brett, who I thought was absolutely immense Monday, and be a bit smarter, I’m sure we can push them and hopefully just sneak over the line,” he said.

“We’ve looked at England and know there are areas in there where, if we’re clinical and play to the structure we’ve talked about, we can break them down and we can get over the whitewash.

“Look at what Scotland, Italy and the United States have done. And England slipped up against Italy.”