We’re planning for the Ashes until told otherwise – Luke Gale

He has been setting up video meetings with players in the performance squad, just as a ‘get-to-know-you’ type of thing.

It was meant to be me and Harry Newman, but Harry’s not the sharpest tool in the box and he couldn’t work the technology!

Either that or he slept in and missed it.

All he had to do was log on to the app on his phone, but he didn’t manage that so it was just me.

Shaun was joking about it, saying Harry’s already in the bad books, missing his first meeting, but I think he got to speak to him one on one later.

We had our first face-to-face squad meeting cancelled because of the pandemic so it was good to chat to Shaun; he outlined what he expects from his England players and spoke about a few of his plans.

Obviously nobody knows what is going to happen later in the year and even if the Ashes will go ahead. The NRL have moved their Grand Final back three weeks to late October and the first Test is supposed to be the week after.

Also, our season will probably still be going then so I guess the Ashes must be in some doubt. But Shaun thinks it could still go ahead and obviously wants it to so we are going ahead as planned, as though we are going to play.

I think that’s the way to go about it; you can prepare for it now and, if it doesn’t happen, so be it. There’s no point thinking we aren’t going to be playing when that hasn’t been confirmed. I think that makes sense for Super League as well as the internationals.

We are into the unknown and we don’t know when we are going to be playing, but we have to prepare so we’re ready to go when the time comes.

I will say though, it will be really disappointing if the Ashes doesn’t happen.

It’s something the whole sport over here has been massively looking forward to and, as a player, I am no different.

I have played against them twice and we’ve been beaten both times. The second time we got a lot closer; we have got them on home soil this year and I think it will prepare the platform for 2021 and the World Cup. It would be fantastic for our preparations to test ourselves against them this autumn. There’s nothing better than playing the Aussies – apart from beating them!

Any time I play Australians at anything – ping pong, pool or anything – I love to win, but I’ve not done that yet on a rugby league field and not many people have.

This year and the World Cup are perfect opportunities.

We have got some great young players coming through and they’ve had a changing of the guard as well with some old legends bowing out and a lot of new faces coming through.

It will be a hugely exciting tournament and, hopefully, we can get it on. Other than talking to Shaun, I’ve spent most of this week gardening.

I’ve been putting some railway sleepers down in the garden and that’s been keeping me busy, as well as in shape.

I’ve also got fed up of running around the local park, so I’ve bought three bikes for me, my partner and little girl and I’ve done about 100k this week.

We cycled from Rothwell along the canal into Leeds on Wednesday, had five minutes at the dock and turned around and came home.

It’s about 20k and my five-year-old Betsy smashed it, she did really well.

While I’ve been out and about in Rothwell a few people have stopped me to say they enjoy reading this column, so thanks to them and, if there’s anything you want me to talk about, you can get in touch via Twitter @snozzer_gale.

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