Adrian Morley out to silence England's League critics

Adrian Morley says England have been stung by criticism from former internationals and will use it as extra motivation in their bid to reach the World Cup final.

England have limped into Saturday's first semi-final against New Zealand on the back of three below-par performances in the group stages which have brought widespread condemnation.

Morley today revealed the players have been particularly hurt by the ridicule poured on them by former players. Ex-Great Britain captain Gary Schofield has led the criticism in his role as a newspaper columnist.

Speaking at a fans day at Brisbane Broncos' Leagues Club, the Warrington captain said: "Some of it is justified - we've not been playing particularly well. But some of it is from former greats coming out of the woodwork and bagging us and we feel those kind of people should be getting behind us and supporting us.

"We've not done ourselves any favours by our performances but a great performance on Saturday would shut all the knockers up. They will forget how we've been playing and see that we're in a World Cup final against either Australia or Fiji."

England have adopted something of a siege mentality since their 52-4 humiliation by Australia 11 days ago and coach Tony Smith is still giving precious little away about his team for Saturday's game at Suncorp Stadium.

Morley, who was accompanied at today's sparsely-attended fans event by England team-mates Ben Westwood, Jon Wilkin and Mark Calderwood, insists, however, that the players' confidence has not been dented by either their disappointing displays or the subsequent criticism.

"The mood is quite positive really," he said. "I know we've had three poor performances really. Even in the victory over PNG we weren't playing up to our best. But we're surprisingly upbeat. We realise where we've gone wrong and we realise we've not been playing to our potential but we've still got confidence in one another and confidence in the coach.

"And the beauty of it is that, even though we've not been playing well, we're still in this competition. It's up to us to nail a performance. We're in the semi-final of a World Cup and so we've a lot to play for. We're not too far from producing an 80-minute performance and, once we do that, there is so much reward.

"It is all to play for. There were positive signs from all three games. We've been learning from each game. We think we can score points and, once we get our defensive patterns right, we'll be a match for anyone. We're going to give it our best shot."

The 31-year-old Morley, one of England's survivors from the 2000 World Cup, admits Saturday's game will be the biggest of his long international career and he is determined to make the most of his big chance.

"I won't play in another World Cup so this is my last throw of the dice," he said. "I'm going to give it my all and, fingers crossed, we'll get the result."

If England are to make the November 22 final in Brisbane, they must plug the gaps that enabled Kiwis winger Manu Vatuvei to run in a World Cup record-equalling four tries in the pool game game at Newcastle, three of them without a finger laid on him.

The 112kg Vatuvei goes into his 15th Test seeking to continue an impressive run that has so far brought him 22 tries from 21 top-level matches this year.

"He had a big game," said Morley, who spent six seasons in the NRL as a player with Sydney Roosters. "He's a big unit and he's strong and quick as well. I don't think we defended particularly well on him. They weren't tries where he beat five and six men. It was just bad man marking really.

"He's obviously a threat but the rest of the boys are a big threat as well. They've quality from one to 17."