Former Wallaby Sam Scott-Young says England's players need to stare down the haka and blow kisses at their opposition before Saturday night's Rugby League World Cup semi final at Suncorp Stadium.

And former league Test prop Greg Dowling warned England to upset the proud Kiwis at their own peril if they again turn their backs on the haka.

New Zealand felt England deliberately disrespected them in last weekend's pool match at Newcastle.

They've challenged the English to face up to their traditional pre-game war cry in which they roll their eyes, stick out their tongues and contort their faces in a bid to intimidate their rivals.

Scott-Young had his looks re-arranged after winking and blowing kisses at All Black props Richard Loe and Olo Brown before a Bledisloe Cup Test but said the tactic put them off.

"The haka is either a greeting in the old Maori ways or an act of war," Scott-Young told AAP.

"It's a contact sport and they're challenging you to step up and face them.

"If I was England, I'd blow kisses at them again."

Scott-Young said he deliberately set out to put the All Blacks off their game.

"I knew they would be pissed off at me and that they would hunt me down the whole game," he said.

"I knew I could handle a punch and what it meant was they were taking their eye off the game and looking for me."

Scott-Young was in the Lang Park crowd when Dowling and New Zealand prop Kevin Tamati staged a wild fight which spilled into the crowd during a heated Test match in 1985.

"I was there watching my brother play the curtain raiser for Queensland Universities, it was a bloody beauty," said Scott-Young.

Dowling said England should be very wary of firing up the Kiwis.

"Anything you give the enemy or the opposition to fire up on helps them," said Dowling who traded punches and head butts with Tamati after the two were marched.

"There could be some fireworks and I wouldn't be giving them any extra motivation.

"They've got Adrian Morley, Jamie Peacock and a few other guys who can handle themselves."

He said it looked like New Zealand were hell bent on getting revenge on England in the first half last weekend after the haka snub.

"They were trying to settle the score for what happened," he said.

"But once (Kiwi assistant) Wayne (Bennett) and (head coach Stephen) Kearney got them in the sheds at halftime and said `you idiots get back to playing football' we saw how well they can play.

Dowling branded England the big disappointments of the World Cup saying some of the minnows had shown more heart and fight.

"They've got to find something on Saturday night, it's back to the wall stuff," he said.

"If they don't win it, they're going to get lampooned when they go home.

"They'll be rated as a failure."

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