Steve McNamara is assured a full international programme 2012 - Rugby League
Rugby Football League (RFL) confirmed on Tuesday, that the Super League 2012 International Game Programme will be released on Friday, November 25. The assurance from RFL quarters was made to satisfy English coach, Steve McNamara, who is looking forward to
their next fixture.
England all set to continue playing games until the Rugby League World Cup 2013, which is scheduled to take place by the end of nect year. World Cup will be co-hosted by England and Wales.
Unlike England, Australia will be on hiatus from playing at the international level until World Cup. It was expected that Roos will change their mind about such a long pause from playing but so far there is no deviation from their previously announced boycott
until the big day.
Following Kangaroos’ lead, Kiwis have also withdrawn from their further participation at international level. Previously, they were scheduled to contest against English side, in the Test Series but now England is completely unsure of their future games.
England’s coach, McNamara and their skipper, Jamie Peacock, had pushed for the immediate release of their future plans, which will help them organise their upcoming year. It is expected that that the Super League Schedule will include England’s two mid season
games against Exiles, which will be played on weekends.
RFL chairman Richard Lewis, who will come up on Friday with the RL full games’ schedule, shared, "We'll be announcing pretty soon what the schedule will be but we haven't anything to announce yet England will have a full schedule for sure.”
While referring to the long break of Aussies, he added, "That could work in our favour. We've got to get hungrier and hungrier. The World Cup is going to be on our own territory and we've shown glimpses of what we can do. We're going to work hard to get
things right on the big occasion in two years' time.”
He also mentioned that England missed out on their opportunity to clinch the Four Nations 2011 because of their sloppy performance in one match. They had failed miserably in their efforts to best out series’ favourites, Australia.
Without denying the fact that England had underperformed against the superior forces in the series final showdown at Elland Road, there is nonetheless a visible improvement in their game which continued to improve game by game.
English coach is aware of this fact and does not want his side to lose track of it. This can be achieved through staying persistent in their efforts to improve, until the end of 2013.
There is exactly two year’s time in between. If England continues to improve on their game by building up on momentum gained during the Four Nations, they can be the next World Cup Champions.
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