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Australia centre Chris Lawrence claims England will have the strongest pack in the Four Nations after the hosts named his Wests Tigers teammate Chris Heighington in their squad.
Heighington was named in Steve McNamara’s 22-man panel on Monday for the tournament, which gets underway on Oct 28, and will pack down with fellow Tiger Gareth Ellis.
Australia meet England at Wembley Stadium on November 5 with no fewer than four NRL players likely to start for the Lions, along with prop James Graham, who joins Canterbury for the 2012 season.
Ellis and Heighington will be joined by Melbourne five-eighth Gareth Widdop and Brisbane’s Yorkshire-born, Queensland-raised centre Jack Reed.
Former Sydney Roosters enforcer Adrian Morley, who was infamously sent off after just 13 seconds in a clash with the Kangaroos in 2003, is also included, as is New Zealand-born playmaker Rangi Chase, who spent two years with St George Illawarra.
Chase won Super League’s Man of Steel Award this season after a fine campaign for Castleford but his selection was met with criticism by English great Garry Scofield.
South Sydney prop Sam Burgess is not available due to a shoulder injury.
Heighington has been one of Wests Tigers best performers in recent seasons, but has only two NSW Country Origin appearances to his name.
He opted to pledge allegiance to the country of his father’s birth after constantly being overlooked by NSW selectors.
Lawrence is fully expecting the hosts to be a difficult proposition in home conditions.
“I’d say they have the best pack out of all three nations, you have Chris, Gareth, James Graham, Jamie Peacock and Adrian Morley, that is a pretty formidable set of forwards,” Lawrence told AAP.
“With that pack and Gareth Widdop playing good footy for Melbourne, they are going to have some good halves playing in their conditions they are going to be very hard to beat.”.
Newly-crowned Super League champions Leeds have seven players in McNamara’s squad, but grand final man of the match winner Rob Burrow is not included due to a rib injury.
Exciting young St Helens’ halfback Jonny Lomax, 20, rated as one of the best prospects in the English game for many years, is also included for the first time.
England Squad: Carl Ablett (Leeds), Ryan Bailey (Leeds), Tom Briscoe (Hull), Garreth Carvell (Warrington), Rangi Chase (Castleford), Leroy Cudjoe (Huddersfield), Gareth Ellis (Wests Tigers), James Graham (St Helens), Ryan Hall (Leeds), Chris Heighington (Wests Tigers), Ben Jones-Bishop (Leeds), Jamie Jones-Buchanan (Leeds), Jonny Lomax (St Helens), Michael McIlorum (Wigan), Adrian Morley (Warrington), Jamie Peacock (Leeds, capt), Jack Reed (Brisbane), James Roby (St Helens), Kevin Sinfield (Leeds), Sam Tomkins (Wigan), Ben Westwood (Warrington), Gareth Widdop (Melbourne), Jon Wilkin (St Helens), Kirk Yeaman (Hull).
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