Ryan Sutton would have made the England performance squad had he not got injured earlier in the season, Bradford Bulls boss Kurt Haggerty believes.
Sutton, who is heavily believed to have signed a new contract at the Bulls this week, was a notable omission from the 38-man squad, and missed out on what would have been a first international call-up in five years.
It’s a testament to how far Bradford have come that they now have a player in their ranks that is worthy of an England call-up, whilst Sutton also deserves credit for having an exceptional start to the season.
The ability was there, we saw that in his Wigan and Canberra days, but it was his inability to stay fit that hampered his chances in the NRL.
Sutton has been one of the most underrated props in the competition this season, and had he not had a two-month lay-off due to injury, it’s hard to argue that he shouldn’t have been in Brian McDermott’s plans.
In his weekly press conference, Bulls boss Haggerty was asked about the 30-year-old and whether he was unlucky to miss out on the performance squad.
He replied: “I think if he hadn’t got injured and had a couple of weeks out or a period out, I think he’d have been in for a shout for sure.
“I think if he strings some games together, he’s shown he’s a very good Super League front rower. I think if you ask Ryan he’ll certainly be pushing himself to be an England player.”
Commenting on what he has brought to the side since his arrival in the off-season, he said: “He’s brought leadership, he’s brought experience, he trains at a very intense level.
“We’ve got a lot of young middles and front rowers at the club, so they look up to Ryan and he sets an example of what an elite Super League player looks like.”
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Bradford Bulls boss’ target to players ahead of Catalans Dragons clash
Bradford head to Perpignan this week where they will face Catalans in a repeat of that round two clash, where the Bulls were victorious in their first Super League game at Odsal since 2014.
However, this week will prove to be a completely different beast, with the scorching heat set to play a huge part in both sides’ game plans.
Whilst the weather won’t be an issue for Haggerty, who will we enjoying the game from his air-conditioned coaching box, the players face an incredible task, and given the conditions, it makes completion rates that much more important.
Both Catalans and Castleford struggled last week in the Perpignan heat, and Bradford will be able to learn from that game what to do differently.
Haggerty has revealed the target he has set his side to achieve this week, and if they complete it, they may have a chance of picking up their first away win of the year.
Asked if he has any reservations on the weather, he said:Â “It’s so difficult. We’ve trained today [Wednesday] and at the start of the training session it was raining.
“We can talk about playing over in the heat and respecting the ball and completing, but then it’s raining here, and we can’t practice how we want to play.
“That’s the situation we live in in this country, so we know it’s going to be very hot, we have to complete a lot better than we did last week to give ourselves an opportunity to beat Catalans.”
He later added: “If we don’t complete high and we complete at a completion rate that we did at Leigh, 62%, we won’t win the game.
“We’ve got to complete up at the 80-85% to even consider being in a chance of winning the game, so it’s respecting the ball and finishing our sets well to give us a chance to win.
