PROUD Giants coach Nathan Brown believes his England players should take great heart from the way they played against Australia yesterday.

England’s hopes of reaching the Four Nations final were dashed with their 34-14 defeat against the might of the Kangaroos in Melbourne.

But there were times when the tourists showed great promise, with England leading 8-6 after 15 minutes and then Giants star Luke Robinson giving his side new hope at the start of the second half with a try, converted by clubmate Leroy Cudjoe, to make it 26-14.

And with England being on the end of some debatable calls, Brown doesn’t believe it’s all doom and gloom, and is sure his Giants will return home from their experience far better players.

“Given some of the tough calls, I thought it was a great effort from England,” said the Australian, who also had Eorl Crabtree and Shaun Lunt in the visitors’ 17.

“To stand any chance of matching Australia you really need the 50-50 calls to go in your favour, and clearly that wasn’t the case.

“As a result, it was always going to be an uphill battle, and if you give Australia so much possession as well by making errors, you’ve got no chance.

“But even though so much was against them, I thought all four of our boys handled themselves well.

“I was delighted to see them playing, and I’m also delighted Kevin Brown and Darrell Griffin featured earlier on the tour (against the Maori warm-up game and in the tournament opener against New Zealand) and made very solid contributions.

“Although they’re still waiting to play in a winning England side, all six will have benefited tremendously from the experience.

“They have also helped put the Giants firmly on the rugby league map, and that’s important. It should bode well for next year.”