Castleford Tigers: Gale is forced into anxious Four Nations waiting game

Gale is hoping to be selected for England’s Ladbrokes Four Nations opener against New Zealand in Huddersfield on Saturday after making his Test debut in last week’s win over France.

Coach Wayne Bennett will name an initial 19-man squad for the game tomorrow and Gale said: “You just keep practicing at training, listening at videos and I think they will pick the team pretty soon.

“I’m not sure what he is thinking yet – it’s hard to predict, to be honest – but it’s good and all the boys help each other. It’s a really good environment and whoever gets the nod I’m sure will do a great job.”

Gale reckons England have genuine competition for places.

“There’s four half-backs [in the squad] and all had good years,” Gale said.

“There will be plenty of confidence knocking about. We’re all a bit different, we all have different qualities and I’m sure working with Wayne, Bettsy [assistant-coach Denis Betts] and the other guys, we’ll get the best out of each other.

“I’m looking forward to the next few weeks alongside everyone and putting it to use.”

Last weekend’s win in Avignon gave Gale a taste of Test rugby.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said of his international debut. “It was a proud moment for myself to pull on England jersey.

“The boys went really well, completed high and did all the right things. The one try they scored was pretty disappointing, but apart from that we were happy. I thought it was an adequate test for us and we handled it really well.”