SAINTS may have six players in the England squad preparing for the 2021 World Cup – but the club’s contingent in the international showpiece, which starts in 200 days, could be more than double that.
Today Shaun Wane announced James Roby, Tommy Makinson, Jonny Lomax, Morgan Knowles, Mark Percival and Alex Walmsley in his 35-man squad.
There was no place for developing young Knights prop Matty Lees, and quite a few fans have queried where James Bentley is.
Bentley was in the Ireland squad which came through the qualifiers, and he could make it a trio of Saints first-teamers playing in green alongside 2017 tournament veterans Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
Ireland will play Jamaica, Lebanon and New Zealand in the group stage.
Bentley has been hugely impressive, but with the presence of established second rows John Bateman, Liam Farrell, Elliot Whitehead and Ben Currie maybe the England boss felt this switch was not as urgent as the conversion of Morgan Knowles from Wales.
Looking down the Saints squad, Regan Grace will be Wales’ most high-profile star on show in their matches against Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands.
Grace will be on home St Helens soil for Wales’ clash with Tonga – who are coached by Saints boss Kristian Woolf.
He could also be facing another teammate in Agnatius Paasi who will be keen to press his claims for more international caps in a tough NRL-packed Tongan team.
Tonga’s Group D clash with Papua New Guinea will also be at Saints’ home.
Theo Fages, who skippered France in 2017, will merit another call-up from a new-look French coaching set up that features Sean Long.
France are in Group A with England, Samoa and Greece – so not only could Fages face the English Saints, but there’s a good chance he will have new recruit Sione Mata’utia flying at him for Samoa.
Full back Lachlan Coote wishes to carry on representing Scotland – the birthplace of his mother- after he missed out on the 2017 tournament through injury.
Scotland will play in the same Group B as Italy, Australia and Fiji – with the latter of those providing another potential meet-up of Saints.
Centre Kevin Naiqama skippered Fiji in the 2017 competition and is likely to feature once again.
To add to the contingent, Paul Wellens is Shaun Wane's assistant coach at England and he was assistant at the 2017 World Cup.
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