England v Samoa: Castleford Tigers ace Mike McMeeken breaks the traditional rugby league mould
Back-rower will have a big set of fans roaring him on, in Hampshire
MIKE MCMEEKEN has guaranteed a big crowd will be watching how England’s rugby league stars fare against Samoa – in deepest, darkest Hampshire.
The Castleford second rower’s rise to the national side is definitely not from the traditional mould.
Born in Basingstoke and raised in Fleet, he started playing rugby union at Chobham before switching codes and joining London Broncos’ academy.
Now he is ready to take his place among the elite as he looks back on where he has come from.
McMeeken, 23, said: “I'm massively honoured to be part of it and I'm proud to be representing the club and my family at international level. I found out on Wednesday morning before training and I was buzzing.
I'm pretty chuffed to be playing with the other players in the team but at the same time, I've been playing well, so I've got this opportunity.
“I managed to tell my family that I was playing on Wednesday and they were pretty happy. There will certainly be a big crowd watching down in Hampshire.”
McMeeken’s form both for Castleford and in training has convinced national boss Wayne Bennett to throw him in from the start.
But there will be no hanging around and looking around open-eyed at the players he will be playing with and against, the likes of Sam Burgess and James Graham have seen to that.
He added: “As soon as I got there, the likes of Sam and James introduced themselves and they're just one of the lads really, even though they're great players and that makes us a great team.
“It's just a massive opportunity for us. I got off the plane on Monday evening and on Tuesday, we had a bit of a recovery session but on Wednesday we had our first full field session on Wednesday and everyone seemed up for it.
“And it doesn't feel any different. We clicked straight away and everyone is doing stuff together. When we trained, everyone was on board.”
McMeeken is not the only new face in England’s side, Australia-born Chris McQueen will also make his debut after being named on the subs’ bench.
But he believes the Gold Coast Titans ace has already showed his worth without even taking the field, as has fellow ‘Plastic Pom’ Chris Heighington.
They will have to as Samoa are fielding their strongest ever side, packed with NRL stars.
Then as ever it will be back to picking holes in his performance, whether England win or lose.
McMeeken said: “The team has bonded really well and it's a pleasure to have them on board. It's always good to have better players on your side and I think we've got the best we can.
“A lot of Samoa’s team play in the NRL, so the blokes that are already playing over here know about them straight away. they know what we're coming up against. That's what we've come here to do - come here and beat Samoa, which would be a good warm up for the World Cup.
“It would be massive to play in the World Cup but at the moment I'm focussing on doing my best in this game and then making sure I do my best for my club.
“And I'm analysing my game every week to spot areas of my game that I can work on and doing that through the week.”
ENGLAND: Ratchford; McGillvary, Watkins, Hardaker, Hall; Brown, Gale; S Burgess, Hodgson, Graham, McMeeken, Whitehead, O’Loughlin. Interchange: Hill, Heighington, McQueen, T Burgess
