He'd just been belted and belted late by England forward Sam Burgess after putting in a grubber kick with Australia on the attack in the first half of the World Cup opener.

Cronk was supposed to retire in a green and gold jersey at the end of next month.

Early next week, he's expected to announce a two-year deal with the Roosters worth close to $2 million, although the Roosters are not so sure it's over the line.

It's understood South Sydney could make a late play for the 33-year-old halfback, despite head of football Shane Richardson declaring two weeks ago in The Australian that the club wasn't interested.

The Roosters fear their bitter arch rivals will try to gazump them at the 11th hour. Only the paranoid survive in this game. We'll know soon enough.

If Cronk knows what he's doing, he's not letting on. His Kangaroos teammates have been prodding him all week, trying to draw out an answer, but he's given nothing away.

Against a spirited England on Friday night, before a crowd of 22,724 at AAMI Park, he didn't have the commanding performance he might have hoped for after dominating the rugby league news cycle for the past month.

In the first half, he was rusty: a cross-field kick to Dane Gagai that went dead; a miracle round-the-corner pass on the fourth tackle that fell into England hands; another kick that dribbled over the dead-ball line.

In the second half, he was barely involved as Australia desperately clung to 10-4 lead while England threatened to steal the game in the final minutes.

Instead, a Cameron Smith penalty with four remaining minutes after a lazy strip from back-rower Elliott Whitehead sealed it. Centre Josh Dugan ran the length of the field soon after to rub England's nose in it. A worrying knee injury to Sam Burgess was already enough.

Australia came away with an 18-4 win.

The footy, it must be said, was a welcome relief. The will-he-or-won't-he-and-if-he-does-what-does-that-mean-for-Mitchell-Pearce conjecture about Cronk's future hasn't been the only distraction for this tournament.

You can always rely on the NSW Police Force to drop a rugby league bombshell at the worst possible time for the game.

It announced in June last year it was looking into the possibility that matches were fixed. Two days before last year's finals, it announced Strike Force Nuralda had been set up to investigate.

In a stunning coincidence, it announced on Friday morning that Nuralda couldn't pin anyone for rigging matches but warned the NRL that players were being lured into handing over inside information to underworld figures in exchange for cocaine and hookers. Awesome.

Thankfully for rugby league it has rugby league to fall back on. It makes all the pain go away, at least for 80 minutes.

Australia's favouritism heading into the England match was overstated: they were missing Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Darius Boyd and Greg Inglis to injury. The halves combination of Cronk and Michael Morgan had only four training sessions this week to feel each other out.

Still, Australia won and when they really get going they will have what Queensland have and what the Storm had until Cronk decided he would be moving to Sydney next year to be with fiancee Tara Rushton.

It's the near-telepathic understanding he has with Cameron Smith and Billy Slater, somehow knowing exactly where the other will be when it matters.

How Cronk functions in a side without those players will be a great challenge.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson is convinced it can work and Pearce won't have to be squeezed out. That it can all work with Pearce and Cronk and Luke Keary and Jake Friend.

At the moment, Pearce is wounded. He's away at a wedding this weekend, and is mulling over his future. Some reckon he should walk. Others want him to stay. Cronk, it's been said, thinks it can work.

Meanwhile, Cronk won't be ducking up to Sydney to nut out a deal before the Kangaroos go into camp in Canberra on Monday ahead of their next match against France.

Instead, he'll be heading to the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley with his Australian teammates but expect an announcement in coming days.