• Rugby League

McNamara storms out of World Cup press conference

McNamara's World Cup preparation has been marred by disciplinary issues © Getty Images

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England coach Steve McNamara ended his news conference just six minutes in after persistent questioning of his selection decisions ahead of his side's World Cup opener against Australia.

Second row Gareth Hock was booted out of the squad on Tuesday for "serious breaches of team discipline". The 30-year-old said he and some team-mates went out for drinks following England's 15-14 defeat to Italy in a warm-up match.

And with prop James Graham not being selected for Saturday's opener at the Millennium Stadium, McNamara was quizzed amid speculation that the former St Helens star, now with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in Australia's National Rugby League, had been involved in the post-Italy game incident.

"There are seven very good players not playing this week," McNamara said. "I'm certainly not going to talk about any individuals among those seven.

"They are all great players, great people and I'm sure they'll get a part to play during the rest of the tournament."

McNamara rebuffed the claim that it had been a tough week with the disciplinary issues in the squad.

He added: "It's been a week as a coach, simple as that, preparing a team getting ready to face Australia and a team that under-performed last week against Italy. That's been the nuts and the bolts of the job this week.

"I think the world of that squad, every single one of them and they will all play a part during this World Cup."

McNamara became frustrated as he was questioned on disciplinary issues and said: "I'm not going to answer any more questions on it. If you want to continue asking the questions, then we'll wrap up now."

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