England youngster ready for Roo challenge
England captain James Graham says his side of virtual no-names won't be daunted by taking on some of their rugby league idols in Sunday's Four Nations clash with Australia in Melbourne.
Ahead of the AAMI Park clash Graham himself admitted he had long been a fan of Kangaroos prop Petero Civoniceva, while Australian skipper Darren Lockyer was considered a rugby league legend.
England made 11 changes to their line-up for the twilight match, with three players, centre Leroy Cudjoe and interchange forwards Shaun Lunt and Ben Harrison in line to make their Test debut.
They bring to eight the number of England players who have played less than five Test matches.
The entire England backline can only boast a total of 31 caps to Lockyer's 52.
But Graham, who himself has only 16 caps and was handed the role after an injury to Adrian Morley in their warm-up game against New Zealand Maori, said he didn't feel his team would be overawed by the occasion.
"Darren's (Lockyer) going to be one of these people who will be talked about in world rugby when we're all probably long gone," Graham said.
"For some of the younger guys, they may have watched him when they were growing up and he was in his mid-20s killing it for Brisbane so he might have some hero status for them but sometimes that happens in sport, when you play against people you've watched.
"I used to watch for Petero Civoniceva when I was younger but you've got to put that to the back of your mind.
"When you're on the field it doesn't matter."
England must win on Sunday to have any chance of advancing to the final however coach Steve McNamara said there was no panic in the selection and he'd chosen a side best-suited to taking on the defending Four Nations champions.
"We're pretty comfortable with what we've got there, the personnel that we've got we're very happy with," he said.
"Some of the young boys who've been extremely good in not playing the first two gamesare ready to play and we feel it's the right time."
One of the England casualties was fullback Gareth Widdop, who as an NRL player for Melbourne, was set for a home Test but was replaced by Sam Tomkins.
The match would have presented the 21-year-old, who moved to Melbourne from Halifax with his family as a teenager with a special experience - to play a Test in his adopted home town in front of his family, which includes his new baby son, born just last month.
"I'm sure he's disappointed as is any player who didn't get picked but the support he's given the other players since the announcement has been very good," McNamara said.
Widdop, who is behind Billy Slater as Melbourne's starting fullback, got caught out in his positional play in their loss to New Zealand and McNamara said Wigan star Tomkins would relish the extra room in his switch from five-eighth.
"It frees him up a little bit in terms of not running the team around the park.
"He's a very good broken field runner and that gives him the opportunity to run around a little bit and play in all parts of the field."
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