Victor Radley spent his first days in England on the sauce with captain Sam Tomkins and aims to make sure the World Cup ends in a big party, too.
The fiery Australian loose forward’s been a revelation since turning his back on a potential Kangaroos call-up to play for the land of his father. Radley’s form has been so good this tournament that he’s in the running for the 2022 Golden Boot alongside England team-mates Tom Burgess and George Williams. And today he hopes to fire up again to knock Samoa out and clinch a spot in next Saturday’s Old Trafford World Cup final against Australia.
Fittingly, Manchester is where Sydney Roosters star Radley quickly got to grips with his English roots - with a little help from Tomkins - before the full squad got together. He recalled: “We’d trained and then they said we had three days off. I was a bit like, ‘Oh, what am I going to do’. I spent the whole three days with new people that I’d met and loved every second of it.
“Sam was the first to send a message to come down for a coffee which turned into about 30 pints. It was really good of him and good fun. Because he’d come over from France, he was staying at Worsley Park with me so it was just the two of us. I think (coach) Shaun Wane might have told him Victor’s coming today and staying there, so he just reached out and for about two weeks he drove me around like I was his son until I got a car sorted!”
And all-action Radley has quickly endeared himself to England fans, ever since his man-of-the-match display in the 60-6 opening day rout of Samoa at Newcastle. He knows it’ll be a different challenge today at the Emirates given Matt Parish’s side have transformed in the four weeks since. Radley, 24, said: “I got asked after that first game if it changed anything. I said ‘no’ then and it’s still ‘no’ now. We will worry about ourselves.
“They are definitely going to be stronger and we are going to be strong as well. “I’m really excited. I watched the Samoa-Tonga game on Sunday. Both were strong sides. They are big lads. It’s going to take 17 hard Englishman to stop them. And that’s what we’ve got.”
Those include his Roosters team-mate Joseph Suaalii, the sensational 19-year-old full-back who came up with some immense plays to break Tonga and is also on that long list for the world’s best player. Radley, who’d “love” to one day play Super League, said: “Everyone says he’s once in a generation, but he is. He is a freak. We know what is coming. And we are going to take care of it.”
Unbeaten England remain confident they can go one better than 2017 when they lost the final 6-0 to Australia in Brisbane. Radley said: “We haven’t really spoken about that game. I remember watching it. Brian Lockwood came in to speak to us from the last (Great Britain) team that won 50 years ago. So I know how special it will be if we do it. That’s why we are all working hard to get it. We can create some history.”
