McDermott cautioned England not to chase the scoreboard as they chase a vital win over Papua New Guinea.
England face a steep climb toward the semi‑finals after a 30‑12 loss to Tonga in their opener.
A Friday victory in Woollongong must be followed by a Sunday hope: Tonga beating Samoa, while England still needs to erase a 68‑point gap.
Tries will dominate against PNG, yet McDermott, who oversaw an 82‑0 demolition of France, urges patience.
“We have a clear mission this weekend. It’ll test us more than France did,” McDermott told reporters Thursday.
“We find ourselves in another rare scenario – we must not just win, we must win convincingly,” he added.
“Scoring is essential, but we won’t chase points first,” he stressed.
“Physicality comes first; we’ll face a strong, dominant side,” he said.
“Discipline means we stick to our game plan and ignore distractions,” he noted.
“Our performance versus France proved we could hold back early points and still dominate later,” he explained.
“Often big leads cause teams to ease off or over‑play, which I’ve seen too often,” he warned.
“Against France we stuck to our model, repeating it until the end,” he said.
While the French rout was impressive, in my view PNG will pose a far sterner test.
“Jason Demetriou’s coaching and the number of players active in the British league give them great cohesion,” he observed.
“They’ll be exceptionally well‑coordinated on the field,” he added.
What must England avoid to prevent a historic early exit? Can they pull off the miracle needed to reach the semis?
Simply put, England must defeat PNG by a sizable margin before Tonga meets Samoa.
Samoa’s 78‑4 demolition of France and 64‑6 win over PNG give them a massive +132 point differential.
England’s +64 margin over France leaves them 68 points shy of Samoa; another win on Friday would lift them to four points, matching Samoa and Tonga.
After Friday, England will wait 48 hours for the Tonga‑Samoa result in Sydney; a Samoan victory ends England’s hopes, while a Tonga win forces point‑difference to decide the second spot.
England doesn’t need a 68‑point win, but such a margin would let any Samoan loss send them through.
A narrower victory would require Samoa to lose by an even larger score, depending on England’s final differential.
The top team from the combined Groups B and C will face the Group A runner‑up, joining Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands in the semi‑finals.