“I didn’t know that and I’m not interested in that”, McNamara said after the team’s final practice session on the KC Stadium pitch.
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The St Helens hooker will win his 24th England cap in the first Test against the Kiwis on Sunday after being named in an unchanged 19-man squad by coach Steve McNamara.
“As for New Zealand, we saw a few of the real strengths they possess against Leeds Rhinos last Friday”.
McNamara said: “It’s exciting playing playing on home soil”.
“The excitement over this test series is probably as big or greater than the previous Four Nations”. “This place is one of the heartbeats of League, with very passionate fans and two Super League teams in the city”.
As McNamara is also an assistant coach at the Roosters, he knows only too well about the danger of Kiwis’ fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, and says they’ll have to defend against him in numbers. “It’s nice to have a little change from that”.
“Even when you do make mistakes, you’ve got players who can cover those mistakes and prevent tries being scored and that’s going to be an interesting aspect of the game”.
McNamara is likely to keep faith with the team that beat France 84-4 in Leigh a week ago, with Leeds Rhinos full-back Zak Hardaker continuing to wear the No 1 shirt after Sam Tomkins was forced to pull out due to a recurrence of his knee injury.
“It’s different to what we’ve been used to over the last couple of years with the Four Nations”, McNamara said. He’s had to be patient over the last couple of years because of the form of Sam in our team.
“I’d look to create more opportunities, but the two domestic competitions really need to come together and work out a plan that suits both and produce a meaningful global calendar into the game as the sport needs it”.
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“It’s different to the traditional sporting one but I like to get the players exposed to different people from different walks of life”.
