England Rugby League

Captain’s call to fans

Friday 4th June 10

It’s a great feeling to captain England. I love doing it, it’s probably the greatest job in the country.

We’d like to have a full house down at the Leigh Sports Village. We appreciate that England football are playing, but we’d love to have 10,000 people down there cheering us on.  It’s always great when people get behind their country  - it makes you really want to play for them.

Bobbie Goulding will have his team fired up and it will be a physical game, it always is against the French! I’m sure it must be difficult for the Catalans players at the moment, so it will probably be good for them to get away from the doom and gloom.

As far as England is concerned, I think it’s always good to play alongside players who you normally play against. There are some who you enjoy playing alongside and you want to play with them again and again. You only get quality when you play for England.

We’ve got three new players in the squad. Nick Scruton has just got better and better since he’s been at Bradford. He seems to have got rid of the shackles of playing just a bit part for Leeds and has gone on to be a great player for Bradford and he’s really enjoying his role there.

Joel Tomkins has been outstanding for Wigan this year, he’s the form back rower. As for Gareth Widdop, I’ve heard nothing but good things about him through Steve McNamara and Melbourne, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes.

I see this game as a vital part of the preparations for the Four Nations at the end of the season. We’ll be looking to build towards the Four Nations and try to improve on the results we had in the second half of last year’s competition.