Kallum Watkins ready to live all his wildest dreams
England ace used to be a ballboy at Salford and played junior rugby at amateur club Folly Lane
KALLUM Watkins was often left starstruck when handing Salford players the ball.
Today, he could be a World Cup winner.
Leeds ace Watkins was a junior ballboy at Salford’s old Willows home while he was a season ticket holder, watching them both promoted and relegated, and played junior rugby for local amateur side Folly Lane.
At that time, all he wanted to do was follow in the footsteps of the idols he looked up to.
Now, he stands on the cusp of writing himself into rugby league immortality as he will line up against Australia.
England have never won the World Cup and the last time it was on these shores was when Great Britain triumphed in 1972.
By the end of today, though, Watkins, his team-mates and boss Wayne Bennett could be part of a club that was beyond his wildest fantasies.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of as a kid, it’s great for us to get the World Cup final,” said the centre, whose favourite player was Jason Robinson.
“As a kid dreaming to become a rugby league player and represent your country and go to a World Cup final, that’s a dream for me and it’s going to be more special that we are battling in Australia’s back yard.”
Watkins and England know they reached the final by the skin of their teeth after seeing a 20-0 lead against Tonga almost evaporate in seven crazy minutes.
Now for the awesome Aussies, who have only conceded three tries all tournament, but the belief is there that they can pull off what would be a shock victory.
However, it will take some improvement, even from the performance that got them to the Brisbane showpiece and the display in the opening 18-4 loss to Mal Meninga’s men.
The 26-year-old added: “We are confident, and we’ve just got to believe that we can do it and we’ve shown that throughout the tournament.
“But I think we have been a bit clunky at times in attack. For the past couple of games, we’ve dropped too much ball, coughed up too much ball.
“However, I think we have improved massively and we took a lot of positives from the opening game.
“It was all about executing our plays a bit better. We hadn’t played we each other for a year or so, we took that into account and knew we could get better from it.
“Looking back to that last game we played them, there were times we didn’t execute our plays well enough.
“We defended well, I think we handled them pretty well, we broke them down a couple of times, but we just didn’t take that advantage and I think that’s the key, just executing plays better and hopefully putting some more points on.
“Wayne has been a massive influence. He only wants us to do our best. He doesn’t scream or shout, he just lets you know his opinion and that’s how a lot of the players like it and we probably get the best out of each other.
“As a team we are improving game by game, but we are in a situation now where it’s paying off, so we have to go out there and perform today.”
