Four Nations - Australia v England
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne Date: Sunday, 31 October Time: 0745 GMT
Coverage: Live coverage on BBC 5 live sports extra, BBC Sport website and Sky Sports 1, highlights on BBC Two and online at 1705 GMT

Ellis plays for Wests Tigers in Sydney

England forward Gareth Ellis is aiming to produce the biggest performance of his career in Sunday's must-win Four Nations game against Australia.

England were beaten 24-10 by New Zealand in Wellington last Saturday and need a victory in Melbourne to keep their tournament hopes alive.

"It's probably time for one or two of us to step up and take on a bit of a leadership role," said the 29-year-old.

"From my point of view I have to have one of the best games of my life."

Ellis is regarded as one of the game's best forwards but says he can handle the expectation that is coming his way ahead of Sunday's game.

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"It's no different to the pressure I am putting on myself," said Ellis.

But the odds are stacked against the tourists but Ellis is confident England can avoid a repeat of the 52-4 mauling they experienced on their last visit to Melbourne in the 2008 World Cup.

One of just three survivors from the England team that played at Telstra Dome, Ellis admitted: "It still hurts.

"For big parts of that game I had it in my mind that we were going to win and put everything to right that had gone wrong in the past and we were going to be crowned champions of the world."

Ellis, who made his 30th international appearance in last Saturday's defeat by New Zealand, admits the key to England surprising the Kangaroos on Sunday will be to play for the full 80 minutes.

"If we learn the lessons from last week's game, we definitely stand a chance," said Ellis.

"We can't afford to see how Australia turn up before we start playing and find ourselves 12 and 16 points behind and try to run them down.

"We need to play every play, we learned that at the weekend. For big parts of the game we were playing well but, if you switch off for one second, you find yourselves behind the posts watching Benji Marshall kick conversions.

"We know from the last two times we've played Australia that the lesson is to play for the 80.

"In the first one we let them get off to a lead and decided to play in the second half and then, in the final, we played well for 60, 70 minutes and let the Aussies take control for the last 10.

"But it wasn't to be and this is the opportunity we've got now to put that right. The only acceptable outcome is a win."

Highlights - New Zealand 24-10 England

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