Hutton backs Larder call

Tuesday 9th March 2010

Former Great Britain manager Colin Hutton has echoed a call for England to play a team of Super League-based Australians.

Hutton believes playing an England-based team of Antipodeans rather than facing France and Wales would provide the national team with better preparation for the end-of-season clashes with Australia and New Zealand.

Former England and Great Britain coach Phil Larder argued that such a contest would create the type of intensive build-up Australia enjoy with their State of Origin series, and Hutton said: "I fully agree with Phil's comments."

He continued: "I expressed that view after the ridiculous game against Wales on the eve of the 2008 World Cup, where the players' deficiencies in the heat of battle were exposed.

"Australia have their State of Origin series and the Trans-Tasman Test and I am sure, if it was properly promoted, it would create a lot of interest.

"It depends on how much importance we place on the international team. We are so parochial.

"It's been done before. We had the Other Nationalities playing Great Britain in the Fifties and I am sure people would warm to it. The quality is there.

"There is no reason why the Australian team couldn't also play France."

England are due to meet France in June and are likely to play a warm-up match against a Pacific team in New Zealand in October ahead of the Four Nations series Down Under.

The Rugby Football League are still in the process of searching for a new England coach to succeed Tony Smith but are confident of having their man in place in time for the mid-season international.