SPORTING a bloodied brow and heavily marked neck former Saints skipper James Graham wore the wounds of battle in the immediate aftermath of England’s heartbreaking loss to the Kiwis.

But blood washes away; those wounds were superficial compared to the deep scars that this most cruel of defeats had inflicted on the fearless front rower.

The one-time Blackbrook junior had ran his blood to water in attempting to get the England side over the semi-final hurdle.

And although the official award went to prop colleague Sam Burgess, Graham had produced a man of the match display – one full of guts, craft and intelligence.

Understandably, given his blood and adrenaline had been pumping so quickly for two hours, it was no surprise that the flame-haired front rower struggled to articulate the feeling in the camp when collared in the tunnel.

Graham said: “It is really hard to put into words what the boys are feeling right now. It is not a good place to be that dressing room.

“Losing is bad, but to lose like that is just devastating.

“If you look at all the opportunities that we had, but then it has just gone.

“It was a good performance and there was lots in there to be proud of, but it is a results industry and we did not get the result that we wanted.

“We played well but didn’t get the win. People are going to look back and just see that New Zealand won.

“It is knockout rugby league – yes I thought the performance was good, and I thought we played well for 80 minutes.

“Sometimes when two good sides go at it like that there has got to be one winner - the history books will say it was not us. They won’t care how well we played.”

Although he has tasted the bitter disappointment of five Super League Grand Final defeats with Saints and losing the NRL showpiece with Canterbury, it is still not a feeling the keen competitor Graham could ever get used to.

And with him missing the opening ceremony game against Australia, defeat also means the curtain came down on the ex-Saint’s tournament without him being able to test himself against the Kangaroos.

Graham was keen to not put everything on the last minute or so – the high tackle and then the wrong defensive calls.

“New Zealand put us under a lot of pressure – and people will look at that one moment when they scored but it wasn’t about that – there were incidents in the game that maybe we could have done better or that did well.

“People will look at that last incident (after the penalty), I thought we would repel them again but we didn’t,” he said.

Although England achieved the same net result as the last World Cup in 2008, one that also ended with a semi-final dismissal at the hands of the Kiwis, strides have been made.

“You have to applaud the RFL for all they have done since 2008 – that was not acceptable and they said they would do something about it and they did.

“With regards to Steve McNamara staying on as coach – well it is not for me to say, but personally would like him to stay,” Graham said.