World Cup: Steve McNamara hoping the fine margins work in England's favour this time around

England were leading 18-14 and had just 20 seconds to hang on for a momentous victory that would have taken them to the final at Old Trafford a week later when Johnson skipped past an on-rushing Kevin Sinfield and weaved his way to the line.

Johnson converted his own try and there was no time for England to respond as their players slumped to the Wembley turf, scarcely able to take in what had just happened.

The heartbreak has never left McNamara, who was forced to attend the final and witness the Kiwis’ annihilation by Australia, knowing that his England team were far better equipped to give them a game.

“You start to get over it and you’ll bump into someone like Dean Whare, who played in it,” says McNamara, now the Catalans Dragons head coach who was replaced in the England role by Wayne Bennett before the next World Cup in 2017.

“It was tough for the whole group because we played so well. It was so close and New Zealand somehow found a way to win that game but we were the team in form really.

“I had to go to the final and I was sat there watching and wondering what might have been.

“Those little regrets stayed with me for a long time because obviously there wasn’t an opportunity in the next World Cup to try and put that right. I don’t regret anything we did during the tournament but there is a bit of sadness just wondering what might have been.”

McNamara experienced a difficult build-up to the tournament, with England losing to minnows Italy in a warm-up match, and he was forced to deal with a series of off-field issues involving James Graham and Zak Hardaker.

The coach famously walked out of a press conference in Cardiff on the eve of England’s opening game against Australia after refusing to answer questions about his players’ off-field conduct but he says everything came good in the end.

“It was an absolutely brilliant tournament,” he said. “You are so proud to represent your country in a World Cup on home soil.

“It really put England on the map, the way it finished, and probably with some of the build-up, some of the incidents we had all played a part.

“I’m slightly envious now because I know what a great time and what a great experience every member of that England team, players and staff, will have.

“I still say to this day, it was one hell of a performance from us in that semi-final. It just shows that at the highest level of sport, margins are so fine, and I’m sure there will be other games like that this year.”

Huddersfield Giants’ head coach Ian Watson, meanwhile, has recalled the day Wales almost conquered the world. For more than an hour Clive Griffith’s cosmopolitan mix of rugby union converts and part-time league players threatened to pull off one of the biggest sporting upsets of all time against world champions Australia.

Watson, a scrum-half with Swinton, scored the first of three tries in an eight-minute spell to put Wales into a 20-8 lead in that famous semi-final at Huddersfield.

They were still leading 22-14 with 25 minutes to go when the star-studded Kangaroos finally clicked into gear and broke Welsh spirits, eventually putting their fast-tiring opponents to the sword and running out 46-22 winners.

Watson missed the final points flurry after succumbing to a broken hand but will never forget the day Wales rattled the Australians, much of it due to the inspiring words of hooker Keiron Cunningham.

“I scored a try and broke my hand,” he recalled. “It was a spiral fracture, really bad, but I strapped it up and had painkillers and then at half-time got an injection.

“The physio was concerned about me and asked me if I was alright but Keiron Cunningham slapped me on the back and told everyone we were all going back out in the second half and doing the same job.

“Keiron was driving everyone on, he was going berserk at half-time. We were going to die together on that field to try and get the result. Darren Lockyer started to turn it on. They were just too good at the end of the day, their quality came through.

“We just weren’t good enough to be able to sustain what we were doing. We had some players who were part-time and Australia had one of the best teams they’ve ever had.”

Captained by Iestyn Harris, Wales were boosted by the brief return of rugby union internationals Paul Moriarty and John Devereux as they gained victories in the group stage over the Cook Islands in Wrexham and Lebanon in Llanelli.

They lost to New Zealand in Cardiff but qualified for the knock-out stages by finishing second in their group and beat Papua New Guinea in the quarter-finals in Widnes to earn their place in the last four.