England's man of the moment Jermaine McGillvary has revealed how a phone conversation with Wayne Bennett in which the master coach kept calling him by the wrong name helped fuel his international resurgence.

"But I didn't think that was a good sign," laughed McGillvary, who told the official World Cup lunch that Bennett kept referring to him as "Jamie" when he called several players after taking on the England role.

It's been anything but a bad omen for the quirky Huddersfield flyer, who will match up against Australian try-scoring freak Valentine Holmes in a mouth-watering individual contest during the World Cup final in Brisbane on Saturday night.

McGillvary's stellar tournament has him on the radar of several NRL clubs and the 29-year-old was shortlisted as one of four nominees for the prestigious Golden Boot, won by Kangaroos skipper Cameron Smith on Wednesday.

And it's not just the speedster's name that takes some getting used to, but also his eccentric personality.

"He's just a bit strange, if I'm honest," joked England halfback Luke Gale. 

"He sings to himself before he's about to take a carry. I don't know what he's singing. I think it was the Aussie game and he was about to take a carry off a scrum and I said to him after the game, 'Were you singing?'.

"And he said, 'Yeah, I like to sing to keep me focused'. That's a bit what he's like. He's different so to speak. But it works for him."

Mal Meninga's Kangaroos are acutely aware of the danger McGillvary and his wing partner Ryan Hall pose as England look to engineer a huge World Cup boilover in their first final for 22 years.

"I think both of their wingers have really impressed me, especially after our first encounter with them in Melbourne," Australian fullback Billy Slater said.

"They're big strong lads and we're going to need to make sure our kick-chase is the best it's been all tour and tackle them with a lot of numbers and be quite physical."