England prop Tom Burgess confident but realistic after swatting aside Papua New Guinea

The tournament hosts have won four games with consummate ease, scoring 242 points and conceding only 34 in the process.

Belief is coursing through the camp but Burgess is well aware it will be tested in the last four.

"I'm always confident," the prop told The Yorkshire Post. "I never shy away from saying I am confident.

"We know what's ahead of us and that the best is yet to come. We're about to come up against the best players in the world.

"If we're honest, we probably haven't faced that just yet. We're not under any illusions that we're world beaters; we just need to stay at it and keep doing what we're doing.

"The key in rugby league is having that belief as a team. If there's a chink in the armour, you'll get found out. We have got that confidence and need to keep at it."

England were faultless in the opening half an hour of the quarter-final in Wigan, cutting the PNG defence open at will to storm into a 38-0 lead.

Burgess was at his unstoppable best, scoring the first try and punching holes in Papua New Guinea every time he carried the ball.

The Bradford Bulls academy product is at the top of his game but he stressed he is only a small cog.

"I'm just enjoying playing for England," said the 30-year-old.

"Being my third World Cup, I know how much it means to play for England in a World Cup and especially in my home nation. It's pretty special.

"When you're playing through the middle, you want to create that momentum for the boys. I was happy that we could do that early on. As a middle, you feel like you've done your job.

"The thing is, I'm not playing big minutes. We've got some great players and everyone is at the top of their game so we're able to share that around.

"That's probably helped me a little bit. I can play more minutes but I think it's great that we all contribute."

Burgess is one of the survivors from the last tournament when England suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Australia in the final.

He is using those memories as fuel as England look ahead to a semi-final date with Tonga – their opponents five years ago – or Samoa at the Emirates Stadium.

"We haven't done anything yet," said Burgess.

"The 2017 final was a great experience but you remember that pain and it's in the back of your mind. Every time it gets tough in a game you definitely think about that.

"There are a few similarities with the last tournament but we're in our back garden now. We're playing for our families and everyone who has ever helped us along the way in rugby league.

"It's great to be in front of a home crowd and it'll be a great experience going down to the big smoke this week.

"Hopefully everyone can get behind it down there. I'm sure there will be a lot of travelling fans going down. It's another milestone for rugby league."