McGOLDRICK: Tigers trio have an England chance
Published Date:
19 June 2008
By Ryan McGoldrick
View from the pitch
There are three Cas players who have got to be in with a shout for the England team to play France next week.
The obvious one is Joe Westerman. He has put his hand up this year and the media have been talking about him a lot, which is half the battle – getting your name out there and being talked about.
He definitely wouldn't be out of place and it'd be great for him to get a shot. Another one is Michael Shenton. Shenny deserves a run, though whether he'll get one or not is up to the England coaches.
They have got a few options in the centres, but he would be at home at that level and if he doesn't get a chance next week it will come along before too long.
Craig Huby's not done himself any harm this year either. He's playing the best football I've seen from him.
He might not get in this time, but he's a young front-rower and he's only going to get better with a bit of age, so I think his chance will come along too.
Hopefully all three of them can give Tony Smith a nudge with a good performance against Wigan at the Jungle on Sunday.
Things aren't getting any easier for us if you look at our next two games, Wigan and Leeds, but we are back at home and there's no better place to try and put things right.
The scoreline at Hull last week didn't reflect the game. It is frustrating, but we keep saying it.
When we watched the video, it was a bit like Groundhog Day for 90 per cent of the game we weren't that bad.
They scored three tries on the last tackle, another off an intercept and one or two off kicks. It wasn't like our defence let us down, even though we conceded 40 points, but it was frustrating to play in and I am sure it was to watch.
It's not very nice, but we've got to keep plugging away.
We play good footy at times, but we've got to get the balance right and maybe learn to grind out some wins rather than trying to go for the big play all the time.
Wigan got beat in France at the weekend and I am sure Brian Noble will have given them a rocket, so they'll be trying to get back to winning ways. All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and I think if we cut out the errors, we won't be far away.
Unfortunately, we've got a few injuries and Scott Moore and Kirk Dixon are both out.
Losing Scott was a big blow for us last week and it messed up our rotation. He's just started to get over his last injury and he's been playing some good footy.
Hopefully it won't be long before we get Mitchell Sargent out on the field in a Cas jumper. He's going to be good for us, he's a big, mobile front-rower and has proved he can play footy.
He wouldn't have played 150 games in the NRL if he couldn't.
It'll also be good to bring a fresh bloke into the squad. He hasn't been through what we have this year, so he's going to be fresh and enthusiastic, and that's only going to help us.
The full article contains 569 words and appears in EP Leeds First & County newspaper.
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Last Updated:
19 June 2008 9:25 AM
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Source:
EP Leeds First & County
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Location:
Leeds