Defiant Paul Sykes has spoken for the first time about his World Cup ordeal, insisting: I wasn’t to blame.

The Bulls centre became the fall guy for England’s horror loss against New Zealand last month when Tony Smith’s men blew a 24-8 lead.

Having been switched to the flank, Sykes was twice exposed defensively in quick succession after the break, allowing giant Kiwi winger Manu Vatuvei to stroll over in the corner each time.

The double blast changed the course of the game and the dejected Bradford player, making his first and last appearance in Australia, was replaced soon after.

He came in for some scathing criticism from the press, who labelled him England’s ‘weak link’ but Sykes felt his treatment was harsh.

“When I first went in during the game I did think it was all my fault,” he said.

“But I soon realised it wasn’t. It was the systems we were playing that caused the problems.

“I was caught out of position but when defending you have to do what your inside man is doing.

“I did that and there was no other option.

“I made mistakes – I missed a tackle in the first half that led to a try and knocked on in the second – but everyone makes those sort of errors.

“Watching the video back, everyone could see it was our systems that were at fault for those tries.

“I think the coaches did at the time as it was happening as well.”

England’s entire defence was in a state of confusion when New Zealand moved the ball wide with players shooting out of the line, some hanging back and others rooted by dummy runners.

It was Sykes who came under the spotlight though because it was his opposite man who finished things off but a chain of events out of his control left him in no man’s land.

Sykes’ cause wasn’t helped by being shifted around THREE different positions inside 30 minutes of madness in Brisbane.

He initially went to the wing, somewhere he didn’t play once for Bradford last season, as part of a major reshuffle when full back Paul Wellens got injured but later got switched to full back as well.

“I was doing all right at centre and I don’t know why he (Smith) moved me to the wing,” Sykes explained.

“We already had another winger available. Eventually I did go to full back but he could have done that straight away.

“You’ve got to do what the coaches tell you though.”

Sykes could feel like he was hung out to dry after his experience – he was dropped for the semi – but insists his confidence hasn’t been knocked by events Down Under.

“I know what I’m capable of and just can’t wait to get back training with the Bulls next month and back into the thick of things,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to next year “The World Cup was a good experience and something to be proud of. It’s just a shame we didn’t do that well and I didn’t do myself any favours personally.

“I’d love to play for England again. I probably won’t get another World Cup as I’ll be 32 next time around and there’s a lot of young talent coming through.

“But if I can repeat my Bradford form of last year next season then I hope to get some more honours.”

And is Vatuvei - who finished with four touchdowns that night - as awesome as everyone’s making out? “No, not really,” Sykes says.

“He’s just a big, strong lad. If you get stuck into he won’t come again but we didn’t.

“We just gave him a lot of space to score his tries.”