England national rugby league team

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the rest of the stadium was all English.

[laughs]

And we were just like, "Man." But just seeing them there, like, brought a tear to everyone's eyes.

Yeah.

We sung our national anthem and then we beat them.

And, um, it was a funny thing because all of it, the English fans came to the grand final and supported us.

Yeah.

Because on the surface of it, why would I wanna watch this game that runs for three hours that's American? Like, give me, give me that any day of the week.

There's an appeal with English rugby over there, like, the rugby union.

Just d- And w- what is the difference? You ask what, why are people gonna tune in to Thursday and watch the Seahawks and Friday and watch the LA Rams? Promotion.

Yeah, well-

... and say, "We'll give it to you for pretty much free."

Mm.

Like, "Take it off our hands." Like, w- 'cause then you're on the channel where all the English Premier League fans are, or go to Foxtel and offer it to them basically for free.

Mm.

That's incredible.

And finally, we've got the Rugby League World Cup and Perth is going to be hosting the English team.

We've got some games being played at HBF Park.

Tell us your thoughts on the Rugby League World Cup and no doubt Australia and New Zealand will start as somewhat favourites, but how significant will this event be?

Our World Cup's growing, Petty, so...

when we talk about, you know, nationals or nations that are going to be competitive, we've got about six now, you know, so, which is comparable, you know, to any Rebel League World Cup.

So when we look at the English, you know, we've got, we'll have certainly three players playing on that England side, maybe have Sifat Talakai playing in that Tongan side as well, and maybe a couple of other young young players playing in that Tongan side when they get together.

So our fans over here will get a bit of a, you know, first viewing on our English players coming over and they're quite talented players, you know.

We had a bit of fun, but we went around to a few different places.

I think at Barrow and played at Ellen Road as well against the English.

That was an amazing

thing to be a part of as well as others.

I'm really looking forward to it, really excited about the opportunity.

You know, obviously St Helens are a big club in world rugby league, not just in the UK, but in world rugby league.

I remember my earliest, earliest memories of St Helens were when Mal Meninga played over there-

He did? Yes

in the early, the early '80s.

Uh, I remember Mal with the Saints jersey on.

I'm like, "Oh, are they playing rugby league over there too? Okay, look at this." You know?

[laughs]

Right.

Now, a lot of people probably won't appreciate that, but when he was out here in '75, he was the star of that N- Austral- uh, English side-

Is that right?

... of mine.

So the talent's there.

With all the expats, South Africans, English, Kiwis, it's a massive opportunity, isn't it?

Well, keep in mind, when they sold membership about a month ago, I remember being on the email, and they said, "Let's go for, uh, 10,000 by the start of October." We did 9,000 something in one day.

Yeah, wow.

You know what I mean? So you, you need, you need it from a both perspective, but, uh, you know, a- and, and everyone sort of, uh, continually talks about us with Papua New Guinea.

You know what I mean? We- we're two different, uh, beasts at the moment.

Remember, they've signed seven players and, and three, two are in rugby union and one in the English rugby league, and, and they're players they can negotiate with at the moment.

You know, I, I think we're in for a big storm in November the 1st, because it's not only, uh...

Good legacy.

Just a, just an absolute beacon of English rugby leaguing excellence.

Absolutely.

Myself and Morgan Gannon are gonna co-captain the English team in the World Cup.

I'm declaring it.

In the history of Morgans, in the history of Morgans, he is one.

Well, we go forward a little bit here.

I'll- and I'll talk about the World Cup semifinal against the English.

Yeah.

Wembley Sta- Stadium, talking about big occasions, b- the most famous stadium in the world.