George Williams lifts lid on the key reason why England are ‘on the rise’

George Williams says the depth of talent at Shaun Wane’s disposal is one of the main reasons why England Rugby League are ‘on the rise’. It comes following England’s 34-16 win over Samoa at Headingley on Saturday, which saw the team in white complete a 2-0 series whitewash over the tourists.

England were challenged, but ultimately they managed to run in a combined total of 12 tries over the two Tests and the fact that Wane made changes for this week’s game in West Yorkshire makes that even more encouraging.

Kai Pearce-Paul and Dom Young missed the game in Leeds through injury, while Tom Burgess dropped out of the fold, too. In their place though, came Super League’s top scorer Liam Marshall, young player of the year Junior Nsemba and Dream Team forward Luke Thompson.

All three made impacts in front of the 16,000-strong crowd and Williams’ believes that ability to make seamless changes to personnel will stand England in fine stead as they look ahead to next year’s Ashes contest and the World Cup the year after.

“Pleasing to win the series,” Williams told the Sportsman after the game. “Samoa showed the quality in their side fighting back at the end, but for us it was really pleasing. For us I think it’s another step in our development.

“We’re playing against the best nations in the world and we’ve come through again so, really pleasing.

“We’ve had lads come in, Dom got injured and Marshy came straight in. The depth and the quality that we’ve got in the squad is unbelievable so, it’s always that the next person in is just as good as the last and that’s why I think England rugby is on the rise, the depth we’ve got in all positions is brilliant.”

On the spine, he added: “We’ve got Jack Welsby in there, Harry Smith and then we have Mikey Lewis off the bench, we have so much strike in our spine and in the first half especially I think you’ve seen some quality, we stripped them apart. The second half was a scrappy but we’re up for that as well, if you want to play tough and gritty, we’re willing to do that.”

Specifically looking ahead to the challenges that await England down the line following the beating of Samoa, the England skipper said: “It’s massive and more importantly you have to win.

“We know we’re going to have to play Australia, they’re seen as the best nation in the world for a reason and to be playing Tonga and beat them 3-0, beat Samoa 2-0, we’re on the right track. We still know we’ve got a lot to improve on.”