England's Rangi Chase faces nervous wait ahead of Four Nations series

[josie andrews]

Despite winning the man of the match award on an England debut that had polarised opinion even before kick-off, Rangi Chase faces a nervous wait before discovering whether he will retain the scrum-half position for next Saturday's Four Nations opener against Wales.

The 25-year-old Maori, who has settled in Yorkshire and qualifies on residential grounds after excelling in three seasons in the Super League with Castleford, undermined a highly promising first-half performance in Friday night's Test in Avignon with a series of errors in attack and defence that allowed France to reduce their losing margin to a respectable 18-32 with two late tries.

"I don't think I deserved it," an embarrassed Chase said of his individual award afterwards, and if the media votes had been counted up after 75 minutes rather than 65, he would not have had to conduct the interview.

He endured a testing night in so many ways. Having decided to sing the national anthem of his adopted country, he was disappointed when the PA system malfunctioned, and after an embarrassing delay the stadium authorities opted to skip God Save the Queen and move straight to La Marseillaise. Five hours or so later, after the team's charter flight touched down at East Midlands airport at 2.30am, Chase cut a lonely figure as he filled out his immigration forms in a corner of the arrivals hall while everyone else in the party proceeded straight to customs.

Yet in that first half, he showed why the England coach, Steve McNamara, fast-tracked him into the squad despite his lack of a British passport. He handled brilliantly in the buildup to the tries from Kirk Yeaman and Tom Briscoe that overturned a worrying 6-4 deficit, and even in the second half he combined for a second time with Sam Tomkins to set up a second for Briscoe, and drew gasps of admiration from the 17,000 crowd with a couple of his flicked passes.

The worry for McNamara is whether Chase's half-back partnership with Kevin Sinfield can provide the reliable direction necessary if England are to have any chance of challenging Australia and New Zealand when the serious business of the Four Nations begins at Wembley on 5 November. He does have alternative options in the squad in Danny McGuire, who was Sinfield's partner throughout Leeds's run to a fourth Super League title in five years, and Gareth Widdop, the youngster from Halifax who has made such an impressive switch from full-back to stand-off with Melbourne Storm this season. His team selection for the Wales game will be fascinating.

Jamie Peacock, the England captain, was talking in general rather than of any individual when he compared the Avignon performance to "my dad's favourite Clint Eastwood film – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". McNamara now has to decide whether Chase remains the half-back with sufficient X-factor to make England's day.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/oc ... r-nations?

[AdamMac]

Hopefully he doesn't play and he also gets rid of Heighington. Move sinfield to 13, widdop to 6 and bring an inform Myler in at 7. I might watch then...

[Nezza Faz]

He'd a shocker ! MOM, what a joke that was. The same press who gave him Man of Steel, instead of Sam.

He plays like that at top International level, we'll get slaughtered by the top sides. You can't just chuck a series of hopeless, undirected passes without serious mishaps. Bordering on amateurish, imo.

It's poor enough having a half back pairing of Sinfield/
Chase without aggravating it with aimless passes into touch.

[TonyH]

He was trying far too hard to impress imo, however one thing i did like was him and Sam linking up.