Veteran winger Ryan Hall has earned a recall to England’s rugby league squad, alongside seven uncapped players.
Hall, 34, is named in coach Shaun Wane’s 30-strong group for his first training session of 2022 ahead of the mid-season game against the Combined Nations All Stars and the delayed World Cup in the autumn.
The former Leeds Rhinos favourite, now enjoying a new lease of life with Hull KR, made the last of his 38 England appearances against New Zealand in Denver in 2018 when he scored his 35th try in a 36-18 victory.
The new faces are the St Helens trio of Lewis Dodd, Matty Lees and Jack Welsby, Wigan’s London-born second rower Kai Pearce-Paul and his team-mate Liam Marshall, Leeds centre Harry Newman and Huddersfield Giants centre Jake Wardle.
No NRL-based players have been included in Wane’s squad, which will come together for the first time at Headingley on Tuesday, March 15, to begin preparations for the All Stars fixture on the weekend of June 17-19.
Further training sessions will take place in April, May, July and August in the build-up for England’s warm-up match against Fiji at Rochdale on Friday, October 7, and their opening World Cup fixture with Samoa in Newcastle eight days later.
Among the notable absentees are Hull’s utility back Jake Connor and Warrington Wolves half-back Gareth Widdop, while Jordan Abdull has lost his place from the team that beat France in October.
Wane said: “It’s a massive year for us, a great opportunity that we must be well prepared for.
“We’ve looked at a number of things in putting this training squad together – form last year, performances in the All Stars and France games, pre-season training and discussions around up and coming young players.
“The players included for this first session need to look like England players and train like England players. We want something extra from them at this level.
“The younger players coming through are a real credit to Paul Anderson and Paul Sculthorpe on the performance pathway, club coaches and junior coaches too.
“To me it doesn’t matter whether you’re 17 or 37, if I think you can help us win a World Cup you’ll be in the squad.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of players and the ones not included at this stage know that they can still force their way in. It’s an open book and I see some of them coming back in later in the year.”
Training squad: J Bateman (Wigan), D Clark, M Cooper, B Currie (all Warrington), T Davies (Catalans), L Dodd (St Helens), N Evalds (Castleford), L Farrell (Wigan), R Hall (Hull KR), Z Hardaker (Wigan), M Knowles (St Helens), K Leeming (Leeds), M Lees, J Lomax (both St Helens), R Lyne (Wakefield), J McGillvary (Huddersfield), P McShane (Castleford), T Makinson (St Helens), L Marshall (Wigan), H Newman, M Oledzki (both Leeds), K Pearce-Paul (Wigan), M Percival (St Helens), S Ratchford (Warrington), D Sarginson (Salford), S Tomkins (Catalans), A Walmsley (St Helens), J Wardle (Huddersfield), J Welsby (St Helens), G Williams (Warrington).
