The first rugby league Ashes test match for 22 years will be played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday when the two old rivals of England and Australia battle it out to open what has the potential to be a high class three-match series.
Wembley has seen some incredible rugby league matches down the years and these two sides will be hoping to write their own piece of history and move one up in the series with two matches to play. Expect a competitive contest here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC One channel with the build-up beginning at 2pm ahead of the kick off at 2.30pm.
England
This will be the first time that the England team will have played since their series against Samoa a year ago which they won 2-0. There was no mid-season match for England this year so you would imagine that they are going to build into the series, although with the Super League only finishing their campaign two weeks ago, the one thing that their players who went deep into the year won’t be is rusty. In fact, England should be perfectly tuned for this.
They have been in camp for two weeks now so they have had enough time to acclimatise to each other and to work on the combinations that they want to use. The one thing they will need to deal with is a growing expectation for them to come through this series on top. If they are going to win this game it goes without saying that the England defence needs to stand up but if it does they have some real livewire backs who could trouble Australia the other way.
Australia
To be fair to Australia, they look to be taking this series seriously as well. They might be missing some of their star names because of injury but they touched down in England 10 days before this first test so there can be no excuses that they are not acclimatised to conditions and things like that. Their players might be a little rustier with the NRL season having finished slightly earlier but at the same time they are probably fresher so it is swings and roundabouts.
We know exactly how Australia will play this match. Nothing changes. They will use their forwards to get them down the field, rely on the kicking game to put pressure on the opposition and then look to get the ball out wide to score. The Australian defence is always as tough as teak so the things that will being looked for here is the half-back combination and whether it clicks and also how dynamic their backs can be in breaking down this England side.
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Team News
Shaun Wane hasn’t named his 18 for this match yet but he has confirmed that Mikey Lewis and George Williams will be the halves because Harry Smith has been left out of the 19-man party for this one. A.J. Brimson makes his England debut.
Australia have named their side for this match and it will be Cameron Munster who will partner Nathan Cleary in the halves. Reece Walsh, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Gehamat Shibasaki are all in line for their green and gold debut.
Betting
I think Australia will win the series and they might well win this match but this is the time that England can catch them at the right time, if that period exists. You would imagine that Australia are going to build into this series given the time since most of their players last played a competitive match and the green and gold are missing a couple of players who could have been automatic picks because of injury or changing their allegiance.
England have the forward pack to turn this into a slugfest with Australia and in which case they might just get some joy in front of a packed out crowd. I’m not brave enough to back England to win the match but we know that Shaun Wane will have drilled enough defensive discipline into his side that a 14 point handicap looks on the high side. I don’t expect this to be overly high scoring so that feels like a big start anyway but with Australia perhaps needing the run I’ll side with the hosts with that start here.
Tips
Back England (+14) to beat Australia for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
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