Ashton Golding relishing the chance to face his former Leeds Rhinos team-mates

Golding will turn out for Jamaica against England Knights at Emerald Headingley on Sunday, just five days after joining Huddersfield Giants on a three-year contract.

He will be up against three of his old team-mates in centre Harry Newman, back-rower Cameron Smith and prop Mikolaj Oledzki – and knows just how tough they will make the challenge for the Reggae Warriors.

Assessing Knights’ Rhinos contingent, Golding said: “Harry Newman is a character, I will always love him for the effort he puts in training.

“He is second out on the field and second to leave the field, just after me! He is always there pushing.

“Cam Smith has every trick in the book, he is the most skilful player I’ve had the privilege of playing with and Mikolaj has the heart of a lion.

“He will keep going and he’s one of the biggest humans I’ve met.

“Those three are going to bring their own thing to the game. I’ve just got to take them out of my mind and focus on my own game and hopefully my own performance can add to the historic game we’re having on Sunday.”

Injury has ruled Rhinos’ Jack Walker out of tomorrow’s Test so Golding won’t be facing the player who took Leeds’ number one shirt off him, but Giants’ new signing stressed there are no hard feelings.

“The situation with Jack, it is a simple fact there’s two players there fighting for one spot,” Golding said.

“When Jack said he was going to sign, the first response I had was ‘great’. I want the best players around me and to be playing in the best team.

“Then we go to training, we start working together and we really get the best out of each other.

“He will say the same, we have sat down and done a lot of video together, just me and him. He will tell me where I need to pick my game up and I’ll tell him.

“There’s none of that Ashton v Jack, because in a team you can’t have that. I just felt last year my opportunity was limited and I went from playing 23 games the previous year to one.

“I want to be the best player I can and running in the opposite team [at training] didn’t help.”

Golding spent most of the 2019 season playing on dual-registration for Featherstone Rovers.

He said: “They gave me an opportunity to play for them and that’s something I truthfully will never forget.

“Ryan Carr [Rovers’ then-coach] allowed me to take a senior leadership role in his group and I really appreciated that.

“The ride we had was good and I will always think that’s part of the reason Huddersfield took note and came in for me.”

Sunday will be the first time Jamaica have played an England team, but Golding insisted they are aiming for more than just a competitive performance

“We are under no illusions,” he said.

“We are playing the brightest and best young players coming through in Super League, but we know what our strengths are. We’ve played together a while now and we’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great occasion.”