Dewsbury v Warrington: England knows what to expect on ‘home’ patch

WARRINGTON Wolves star Anthony England admits he could shun taking a shower at Dewsbury Rams tonight.
Anthony England hopes he can miss the Warrington Wolves coach trip tonight.Anthony England hopes he can miss the Warrington Wolves coach trip tonight.
Anthony England hopes he can miss the Warrington Wolves coach trip tonight.

The Super League forward is not being precious as his side prepare to take on the Championship part-timers in their Challenge Cup sixth-round tie.

England has good reason for the decision. “I live five minutes around the corner,” explained the former Dewsbury prop.

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“I know a lot of the fans, too, but there’s only Rob Spicer and Austin Buchanan still playing from when I was around.

“I hope (Wolves coach) Tony (Smith) doesn’t make me drive to Warrington to get the team bus as that would be tight. But I might just head straight home after the game and get showered there.”

England played for his hometown club in 2010 and 2011 before moving on to Championship rivals Featherstone Rovers and finally getting his chance among the elite last year.

Therefore, he knows only too well about the idiosyncrasies of Dewsbury’s Tetley’s Stadium, its pitch and what will lie in wait for cup kings Warrington.

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“When I played there, it was just five drives and a kick as it was so tight, so a few of our boys are going to have to get used to the pitch very quickly – especially how narrow it is,” he said.

“I’ve told them about it and Tony mentioned the exact dimensions but until you get on it, you don’t realise how small it is. It’s like the hill at Batley.

“But if we can cope with that in the first half, we’ll be fine.

“People ask if it can be a bit of fun when the wind comes in at the open end? It’s not that fun a place at all, to be honest!”

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Dewsbury are currently just two points off the top-four pace in the league, with seven wins from a dozen games but they are well-coached by Australian Glenn Morrison and have a raft of former Super League players including Karl Pryce, Jason Crookes, Paul Jackson and Makali Aizue.

They do also have a number of injury problems but England, 28, said: “They won’t make it easy.

“Yet playing at Wembley would be a dream come true for me coming from the Championship.

“I was gutted last year when we lost the semi-final to Leeds Rhinos.”