Nearing 32 years-old, Marc Sneyd thought his only England involvement would forever be limited to a one-off team meeting where he didn’t even get a polo shirt.
The Salford scrum-half has long been one of Super League’s leading playmakers but international honours have always eluded him. Until now. He’s set for an England debut against Fiji on Friday night where he hopes to impress enough to earn a spot for next week’s World Cup opener versus Samoa. Yet Sneyd, who won the Lance Todd Trophy in 2016 and 2017 after masterminding Hull’s Challenge Cup glories, almost ignored coach Shaun Wane’s surprise message.
He explained: “I don’t pick the phone up to random numbers. But he WhatsApped called me so his face popped up and I thought I’d better answer it! Obviously, I was chuffed. I’m not an emotional person but it caught me off guard so much I did get a bit overwhelmed. I never thought it was going to happen and being a World Cup year it’s quite significant.
“The closest I ever got was a meeting when Wayne Bennett was in charge. They used to do 40-man squad things. I rocked up, sat there for 45 minutes and then went back to Hull. That was pretty much my England career - I didn’t even get a polo top! The first time I spoke to Waney was that phone call the other day.”
But Sneyd, 31, has accelerated into the picture after a brilliant season at Salford following his switch from Hull. His kicking excellence and organisational quality helped them get within 80 minutes of the Grand Final. With injured St Helens star Jonny Lomax ruled out of the World Cup along with team-mate Lewis Dodd, Wane believes Sneyd can steer his side.
He said: “I knew I'd played well this year but the England thing had never crossed my mind as I always thought my face didn’t fit. And with some of the halves we’ve had over the years you can understand. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but I took it on the chin. Even now, we were in the middle of booking a holiday. We were going to go to the Canary Islands and just thought it’d never happen. Thankfully it did.”
Warrington half-back George Williams will captain England with Sam Tomkins rested. NRL stars Victor Radley, Dom Young and Herbie Farnworth are all expected to make their bow. And Sneyd is looking forward to playing in such familiar surroundings with Salford hooker Andy Ackers also set to debut. He said: "That’ll be nice and quite helpful, knowing the changing room and the pitch even more so. Hopefully now I can do enough to get a spot in that World Cup starting team.
"And I'm buzzing for Andy (Ackers). He's probably gone under-appreciated three-quarters of the year and then at the back end people started to realise and appreciate him. He’s really appreciated through the Salford team and him being my nine as I play half-back I understand how good he is and what he can do. The fact he can do it for 80 minutes is just absolutely ridiculous. He's got in this England side on his own merit."
