As England defeated Tonga on Sunday at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, it was a special day for Leeds Rhinos star Harry Newman and Hull KR halfback Mikey Lewis.
This is because both were making their England debuts and for Lewis it was the perfect international debut.
He laid down a marker very early on in the piece with a terrific break up the middle which led to Toby King’s try.
Then he scored England’s second after a lovely sweeping move thanks to a delightful dummy to burrow over from close range.
He would later be awarded the Man of the Match on BBC and deliver a very emotional interview.
Lewis said to BBC with tears in his eyes: “Oh, yeah, words can’t describe how I feel at the moment. I loved every second of that. The whole week, the whole build up from when I got told I was going to make my debut this week, I didn’t let it go by. I’ve enjoyed every moment and I’ve really enjoyed it, that experience out there.
“It’s massive for me, my family. From where I’ve come from to making my England debut; if you said to me at the beginning of the year that I was going to make my England debut, I’d have just laughed at you. This is how much it means to me and my family. We’ll enjoy this now, we’ll look back, we’ll watch video and we’ll be ready to go again next week.”
This interview attracted the attention of many including former St Helens star Kyle Amor who took to social media to say: “F**k me. This is so refreshing to see how much something means to young kid chasing his dream!!
“Unless your a robot you have to be delighted for him & everyone connected to him! Well done.”
He is certainly right but the interview also showed raw honesty from Lewis who spoke about the challenge of stepping up to the international level:
“Yeah, it’s a big step up; but I’ve come a long way this year and I feel like I was ready for that moment. Like I say, I’m just immensely proud of the win today, the boys really dug in; that Tonga team, they’ve got some unreal players that have real experience. To get the win today is massive for us.”
He also spoke about taking on the big bodies of his opponents: “I don’t know, I just back my instincts. All the coaching staff want me to do is to run at them when they’re tired. I can be better on that and I’ll keep learning, I’ll keep watching video. A couple of defensive errors, I need to fix up, but I’ll go back next week and work on them.”
But he concluded by answering the question if the day would live with him forever: “Oh, unbelievable. Yeah, it will be.”
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