After his A Question of Sport debut on Friday night, Castleford captain Paul McShane is looking forward to asking questions of Hull KR.
The England hooker, 32, is known as the joker in the pack at Tigers. Yet he was initially uneasy about showing his face on national TV on the popular BBC quiz hosted by comedian Paddy McGuinness. But McShane admitted: “It got me out of my comfort zone.
“For some reason, I normally just panic and feel really uncomfortable speaking in those sorts of situations. I was really nervous going on but there it was just easy. The questions weren’t though…! I got caught out on the rugby one. I didn’t help my team there! It was to do with Challenge Cup finals and I over-thought too much about the answer. It was pretty bad - but I really enjoyed doing the programme."
It is rare to see rugby league players on the show but McShane hopes it will happen more often now especially with the home World Cup coming up in the autumn. Super League and the RFL announced a 12-year partnership with IMG earlier this week to maximise the sport's growth. The global media brand is known to be keen to raise the profile of the game’s stars in its bid to make it more visible.
Former Man of Steel McShane admitted: “I was really nervous to start with. But I soon got comfortable. I’ve seen a couple of players on it in the past but not many and I’d jump at the chance to do anything like that again now. I think what’s happened with us being on Sky Sports, the BBC - with the Challenge Cup - but Premier Sports as well and now free-to-view Super League games on Channel 4, we’re moving in the right direction. We’re getting the exposure and it’s only going to help us grow as a sport.”
McShane was on Sam Quek’s side with parasport athlete Kadeena Cox up against Ugo Monye’s team of Ashes cricket hero Steve Harmison and ex-England striker Carlton Cole. He said: "They were all great and Paddy McGuinness was good. He was the one who probably made it so much easier for me. He was chilled out, had a laugh, and didn't take it too seriously.
"You sit watching him host programmes on a weekend and it felt like a mad experience to be with him in the studio. I watched bits of Question of Sport when I was a kid and Matt Dawson was on it. But when I started having kids you don't get a chance to watch much proper TV. It's all kids stuff isn’t it? When it’s time for us to watch some we’re too tired from them running us ragged!"
On Sunday it’s back to the day job of getting Super League victories. McShane said: “We did really well over Easter and picked up three wins people probably didn’t expect us to get.
“But we were disappointed in Catalans. We’ve had a week off to freshen up and now face KR who have put a number on us twice this year so we know we need to be at our best.”
