Shaun Wane names England squad for semi as St Helens star left out, NRL man returns and Hull KR winger again not included

Shaun Wane has named his 19-man squad for the Rugby League World Cup semi-final.

In a surprise twist there is no place for Super League Champion Matty Lees despite the fact he featured against Papua New Guinea at Wigan Warriors’ DW Stadium last week in the quarter-finals. He is likely to lose his place in the side to Luke Thompson.

It will be England’s 200th full international, but only their fifth against Samoa – the teams having met for the first time in a Rugby League World Cup in the opening game of this year’s tournament four weeks ago.

This is the only change to the squad as Ryan Hall is again left out.

If included in the matchday 17, the Huddersfield Giants prop Chris Hill will climb to second in the all-time list of leading appearance makers at Rugby League World Cups.

Hill, who turned 35 last week, broke the British record previously shared by John Atkinson, Roger Millward and George Nicholls when he made his 15th World Cup appearance in the Quarter Final against PNG, bringing him level with the revered Australian Bob Fulton.

Cameron Smith holds the all-time record with 17 appearances spread across the 2008, 2013 and 2017 World Cups, captaining Australia to victory in each of the last two.

Hill is now the third most-capped England player of all-time with 33, behind only Ryan Hall (40) and James Graham (44) – having overtaken James Roby last week. Tom Burgess is set to become the fifth player to win 30 caps this weekend, with Kallum Watkins and Sam Tomkins one cap behind on 28.

England squad

1 Sam Tomkins

2 Tommy Makinson

3 Kallum Watkins

4 Herbie Farnworth

6 Jack Welsby

7 George Williams

8 Tom Burgess

9 Micky McIlorum

10 Luke Thompson

11 Elliott Whitehead

12 John Bateman

13 Victor Radley

14 Dom Young

15 Morgan Knowles

17 Mike Cooper

18 Chris Hill

20 Mike McMeeken

21 Marc Sneyd

24 Kai Pearce-Paul