“We’ve got a great chance” – Sam Tomkins confident England can win Rugby League World Cup

This morning some of England’s biggest rivals for World Cup glory have named their squads for the tournament.

New Zealand and Australia have named exclusively NRL squads – though the Kiwis will have Super League trio Thomas Leuluai, Willie Isa and Dean Whare in their side for the warm-up game against Leeds on Saturday – whilst Tonga have named the likes of Konrad Hurrell, Will Hopoate and Tui Lolohea in their squad from Super League. David Fusitu’a of the Leeds Rhinos missed out as did Agnatius Paasi.

Even Papua New Guinea could be a threat with England potentially set to meet them in the quarter-finals should they top their group though this will be difficult with Samoa a very real threat to England’s World Cup hopes and acting as England’s opening game of the tournament.

Nonetheless, England skipper Sam Tomkins is “excited” and confident that his England side could win the World Cup though has recognised the threat of their rivals.

Speaking on Channel 4’s coverage of the Super League Grand Final last weekend, Tomkins said: “Excited, I started training with England on Friday. Nice to see some familiar faces that I’ve not seen in a while. Really excited that first game against Samoa up in Newcastle is going to be a hell of a way to kick off a World Cup.

“I think we’ve got a great chance, we’ve got a great squad together. We’ve got some challengers, Australia, New Zealand and Tonga so it’s cut out for us but we’ve definitely got a chance.”

Tomkins is set to be a key player for Shaun Wane’s England side and is almost guaranteed the number one shirt for the opener against Samoa and beyond.

To fulfil their ambitions of pushing for World Cup glory, Wane will need Tomkins at his best in this autumn’s tournament.