Captain Sam Tomkins confident England can win the World Cup

England captain Sam Tomkins believes England can win the World Cup despite a number of injury problems and the strength of the other competing nations.

Head coach Shaun Wane picked his 24-man squad for the home tournament on Friday morning, with many sceptical about whether England have the quality to win the competition.

However, the two-time Man of Steel, who will lead out his country in the first game against Samoa at St James’ Park next month, believes there are no reason for England not to win it.

“We’ve got no excuses,” said Tomkins on BBC 5 Live. “We’ve got a great set up, we’ve got great staff working, I mean coaching and medical and we’ve got some of the best players in the world in our group.

“We’re also on home soil so there’s no excuses for us. The pressure’s firmly on the players to provide.”

Tomkins, who remains one of the finest fullbacks in Super League, has a long-running relationship with England boss Wane, having won three Grand Finals under his stewardship in the Cherry and White of Wigan.

“Waney… yeah It feels like I’ve never been away. He phones me about four times a week,” Tomkins joked.

He added: “Yeah, I’ve been with Shaun since I was 15 years’ old, with a few years away in New Zealand and now in France, but we always stay in touch and since he got the England job our relationship has sort of fired back up.

“We talk a lot about rugby, I can tell you no one is more excited about this competition than Shaun Wane.”