Looking at Shaun Wane’s latest England squad, you can see there’s three tiers of players in there.
Firstly, looking at the size of it, with 40 players named, it's certainly big! But you can break it down into three levels who are all then blended together. From the World Cup last year, he has kept some experience, which I think is important. So, you have the likes of Chris Hill, Alex Walmsley and Liam Farrell.
They are the sort of players that you need when you’re transitioning as England now are. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of players who played in the 2021 World Cup who won't be available for France in 2025.
There’s Sam Tomkins, Ryan Hall and Mike Cooper, for example, but you still need some experience in there to show others what standards are like, what training means, what it means to wear that England shirt and how to conduct yourself in camp.
But then there’s a middle tier of players. Here, for me, we have players like Kai-Pearce Paul and Mikolaj Oledzki; players who, if England are to do well at the 2025 World Cup, they need to make that transition from good Super League players and England squad players to mainstay England players.
Finally, there’s a third tier who are young players who have had an outstanding impact in Super League. There’s plenty of these - there’s potentially 20 debutants in Wane’s squad - and I’m talking about people like Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis, Wigan’s Morgan Smithies, Huddersfield’s Will Pryce and Leeds’ Harry Newman.
They need to be shown what it’s like to be in and around an England camp to allow them to get a taste for it and a feel for it. For us to do well in France in 2025, we need three or four of those not only really coming through in time for that tournament but becoming stars of that World Cup.
BETFRED - PASSIONATE ABOUT SUPER LEAGUE
