England v France: Eight debutants in Wayne Bennett's squad for New Zealand warm-up

[josie andrews]

England head coach Wayne Bennett has named his side to face France at Leigh Sports Village on Wednesday, kick-off 7.45pm.

Eight players are set to make their debut; Jamie Shaul, Tom Johnstone, Reece Lyne, and Oliver Holmes will start, while Adam Milner, Luke Thompson, Robbie Mulhern and Liam Sutcliffe will start as interchanges.

Johnstone has scored 24 tries for Wakefield Trinity in the Betfred Super League this season, and Lyne, the 25-year-old centre joined Wakefield from his hometown club Hull FC six-years-ago.

Thompson helped his side St Helens lift the League Leaders’ Shield this year, while Milner was in the Castleford Tigers team which reached the Super League semi-finals.

Five of the eight players set to make their debut have been called up from the England Knights squad, they will re-join the Knights squad after Wednesday night’s game, with the squad departing on Thursday for a three-week trip which includes two internationals against Papua New Guinea.

Jake Connor returns to the England squad after making a huge impact during the side’s fixture in Denver by scoring a try, while James Graham will make his 41st England appearance, his first came against France in 2008.

The game against France will be England’s first on home territory since they reached the final of last year’s World Cup, having since beaten New Zealand 36-18 in Denver.

England squad for the match against France:

James Shaul (Hull FC)
Tom Johnstone (Wakefield Trinity
Reece Lyne (Wakefield Trinity)
Mark Percival (St Helens)
Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield Giants)
Richie Myler (Leeds Rhinos)
Jake Connor (Hull FC)
James Graham (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Josh Hodgson (Canberra Raiders)
Tom Burgess (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Oliver Holmes (Castleford Tigers)
Elliott Whitehead (Canberra Raiders)
George Burgess (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Adam Milner (Castleford Tigers)
Luke Thompson (St Helens)
Robbie Mulhern (Hull KR)
Liam Sutcliffe (Leeds Rhinos)

France's 19-man squad: Bastien Ader, Lucas Albert, Jason Baitieri, William Barthau, Lambert Belmas, Ilias Bergal, Rhys Curran, Alrix Da Costa, Bastien Escamilla, Morgan Escare, Theo Fages, Tony Gigot, Mickael Goudemand, Benjamin Jullien, Paul Marcon, Thibault Margalet, Hakim Miloudi, Romain Navarrete, Justin Sangare.

Tickets for the game against France are on sale now at rugby-league.com and are priced at £20 for Adults and £5 for Juniors. ‘Our League’ members can purchase tickets and save 50% on both Adult and Junior prices. Visit rugby-league.com/tickets for more details and to book.

Supporters will also be able to watch the game live on the Our League app & website.

http://www.rugby-league.com/england/art ... ce-france-

[doc]

Anyone struggling to get on the website. seems really slow and timing out when I try to log in.

[doc]

Typically useless RFL. When I try to connect to the "our-league" website I am getting cannot connect, too many connections. Have a good idea and then make a total cock up of it.

[josie andrews]

I had no problem even tho I was at the game. Couldn’t get on to any search engine tho.

[AndyNick]

Went to Leigh last night for the game. Have to say that the RFL have not covered themselves in glory by any means. It's almost as if the purpose of the game more than anything else was to get people to download the OurLeague app. The marketing of it has been pretty non existent and the fact that half the stadium wasn't even open for an International fixture doesn't show our game in very good light at all.

No merchandise on sale anywhere, They kept flashing details of the online shop on the screen but surely they should have had something on site. To be honest I was quite relieved because the chances are that I'd have bought a shirt so in the end it's saved me £50 and I dare say numerous others were in a similar boat as me. As for the matchday programme (if you can even call it that) they might as well not have bothered. £2 for a 12 page leaflet.

I've read endless reports of the livetream not working, although I can't comment on that as I was there.

As for the game, it was a useful hit out for the players, ruthless first half performance, bit of a lacklustre second half. Thought Oliver Holmes had a very good debut and of course Johnstone took his Hat-trick well.

All in all not a good night for the powers that be at the RFL. One positive though, got to meet Josie!! (and Morgan Escare but that's just a sidenote!!)

[josie andrews]

All in all not a good night for the powers that be at the RFL. One positive though, got to meet Josie!! (and Morgan Escare but that's just a sidenote!!)

Nice to meet you too ????

The programme was a disgrace wasn’t it?

As for the merchandise, I was all for buying the new ‘Poppy England shirt’, so had a look online because you need to pre order it. Yeah that’s fine £50 as you say, but the £7 postage is a total rip-off!

Hope to see you at one of the other international games say hello if you see me ????