Ellis prepares to deliver his best to end World Cup hurt

The former Wakefield and Leeds second row has established a reputation as one of the game's leading forwards after two impressive seasons with Wests Tigers, where he was twice named player of the year.

Along with former Bradford pack man Sam Burgess, the Sydney-based Britons have been described as the best second-row pair in the world and Ellis, happy to accept the pressure that comes from the high expectations, believes it is time they proved their value on the international stage.

"It's no different to the pressure I am putting on myself to perform," he said.

"It's probably time for one or two of us to step up and take on a bit of a leadership role. People speak about our pack a lot and, at the end of the day, we've not won too many. We need to do a little bit more I think and make sure we dominate from the off.

"I know from my point of view I need to step up and lead from the front and probably have one of the best games I've ever had in my life."

The odds are stacked against the tourists but Ellis is confident England can avoid a repeat of the 52-4 mauling they experienced on their last visit to Melbourne for the 2008 World Cup.

One of just three survivors from the England team that played at Telstra Dome, Ellis admitted: "It still hurts.

"For big parts of that game I had it in my mind that we were going to win and put everything right that had gone wrong in the past and we were going to be crowned champions of the world.

"But it wasn't to be and this is the opportunity we've got now to put that right. The only acceptable outcome is a win."

Ellis, who made his 30th international appearance in last Saturday's 24-10 defeat by New Zealand in Wellington, says the key to England surprising the Kangaroos on Sunday will be to play for the full 80 minutes.

That is something they failed to do against the Kiwis, who raced away to an 18-0 lead, and in both matches against Australia in the 2009 Four Nations Series. At Wigan, Tony Smith's men trailed 26-0 at half-time before rallying to go down 26-16 and were well in contention in the final at Elland Road before conceding a late avalanche of points and going down 46-16.

"If we learn the lessons from last week's game, we definitely stand a chance," said Ellis.

"We can't afford to see how Australia turn up before we start playing and find ourselves 12 and 16 points behind and try to run them down.

"We need to play every play, we learned that at the weekend. For big parts of the game we were playing well but, if you switch off for one second, you find yourselves behind the posts watching Benji Marshall kick conversions.

"We know from the last two times we've played Australia that the lesson is to play for the full 80 minutes.

"In the first one we let them get off to a lead and decided to play in the second half and then, in the final, we played well for 60, 70 minutes and let the Aussies take control for the last 10."

While it is generally accepted that England's strength lies in their pack, Ellis is expecting a tough battle against the forwards he has gone toe-to-toe with on a weekly basis for the last two seasons.

"They're very good," he said. "The likes of Anthony Watmough and Paul Gallen are players that work tirelessly, week-in, week-out.

"There are a few challenges we have to overcome and we've got our work cut out but I'm sure this group is ready for the challenge."

English referee Richard Silverwood has been forced to withdraw from tomorrow's Four Nations game between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Silverwood, who picked up a leg injury in training, has been replaced by Australian Ben Cummins.