WINGER Jermaine McGillvary was delighted to let his rugby do the talking for him after helping England secure their place in the World Cup quarter-finals.

The Huddersfield flier was cleared to play in England's final group match against France in Perth on Sunday after being found not guilty of biting Lebanon captain Robbie Farah during the previous week's 29-10 win over the Cedars.

McGillvary spoke of the damage to his reputation that was caused by incident – but his standing in the international game soared as he scored two tries in England's 36-6 victory over the French.

"After something like that, which wasn't nice, you needed a response," he said.

"It could have been easy for me to go into my shell and be a bit timid and stay out on my wing but I tried my best to come in and do what I normally do.

"I thought I did it in stages. It was a little hiccup that happened last week and I'll go again and keep trying to improve."

McGillvary has now scored four tries in the World Cup, and is averaging a try a game for his country, but he was critical of his performance after a knock-on near his own line gifted France possession from which they scored their only try.

He also admits England will need to improve when they take on Papua New Guinea in Melbourne this coming Sunday for a place in the semi-finals after failing to press home their advantage for the second successive week.

McGillvary said: "It was all right but I'm still a bit miffed about that dropped ball in the first half. That's not like me.

"The two tries is nice and the win is even better. The second half wasn't too cracking, so it's something we need to look at if we want to progress. Our completion wasn't real good."

Meanwhile, McGillvary says he has been shocked by the furore over the biting allegation, which made back-page headlines and television news bulletins throughout Australia.

He said: "It's certainly different. I can't believe how much is in the press and it's always on the news.

"I've been telling my family it's like the Premier League. It's ridiculous over here, everything just gets blown out of proportion and it's massive.

"It's good for rugby league, though, especially the positive things like the Tonga game, how well PNG have been going and Ireland being in the limelight.

"It's all good for the game and hopefully one day it will be like that in England so rugby league players get that limelight."