The Kangaroos claim they won't be lulled into underestimating Four Nations rivals England despite a stunning run which has seen them dominate the old enemy over the last ten years.

The Australians have lost just two of their past 16 matches against their northern hemisphere rivals in a stretch dating back to 2001, with the switch from Great Britain to England as the representative selection in 2008 doing little to stem the tide.

Their most recent victory over Australia was in the 2006 Tri-Nations in Sydney, but since then it's been slim pickings with the Kangaroos winning both games in last year's Four Nations campaign.

But hooker Cameron Smith said he saw enough in both of those games and England's first-up loss to New Zealand last week to have the Australians on guard at AAMI Park on Sunday.

"They've got plenty on the line - if they don't perform this week their tournament's over, they'll be going out in straight sets and they'll be left to play against PNG," Smith said.

"They'll be throwing everything at us this week, there's no doubt about that - they'll start really physical and they'll stay that way for the whole match."

That inability to play out the entire match however has been England's biggest problem in recent contests against Australia.

In their preliminary round game in Wigan last year, Australia stormed away to a 26-0 first half lead before the host nation launched a stirring fightback to go down 26-16.

In the final at Elland Road in Leeds it was the opposite, with England on the verge of a monumental upset when leading 16-14 ten minutes into the second half.

By fulltime it was 46-16 to the Kangaroos as they ran in five tries over the closing half hour, England left to lament yet another lapse.

"That was the way last year - they could only string probably 40 minutes together," Smith said of England's inability to play out the entire contest.

"I'm thinking they would have looked at that and said that 'if we want to have any chance of beating these blokes, we need to play well for the entire 80 minutes.'

"That's the way we're preparing ... that they're going to come out and play good football for 80 minutes."

England will no doubt be keeping a close eye on Australian fullback Billy Slater, who in three games against England has scored an amazing eight tries.

Along with former Melbourne team-mate Greg Inglis - who was unavailable for the tournament due to injury - the pair have terrorised England in recent years with Australia's backline proving too much to handle for their outclassed opposition.

Slater downplayed the edge out wide, arguing their job had been made easier by the work inside.

"I think our forwards do a great job - we're playing more as a unit rather than backs and forwards," Slater said.

"Our forwards are a big part of our plays out wide, especially the backrowers - if they don't do their job and hold their man up, we don't get the space out wide."

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