England star John Bateman feared a moment of madness could wipe out his entire World Cup - but now he’s ready to repent.
The gutted Wigan second-row misses Saturday’s big opener against Samoa. He copped a three-game ban for his wild high tackle on Aidan Sezer in Warriors’ Super League semi-final loss against Leeds. But given how hard the RFL have clamped down on such challenges, Bateman - red carded on the night - was concerned he wouldn’t play again this year.
He conceded: “You do think the worst-case scenario straight away. I was pretty worried to find out what I was going to get. When I discovered it was three to five games, I just had to accept it. There was nothing I could do. I just had to hold my hand up.
“I was pretty happy to come out with three games. Obviously, I’ve thought about it a couple of times, what it means missing this Samoa match. The first game of a World Cup in your home country is what dreams are made of. But I know what I need to do now and I’ll be there supporting the lads.”
And he admits it was a tough conversation with his former Canberra team-mate Sezer who was forced to miss the Grand Final due to the effects of that head shot. Bateman, 29, said: “I spoke to him to see how he was. He was…alright. He was obviously not going to tell me how he was really feeling.
“It was a weird one. People were saying all sorts. But it was never intentional. I’m pretty good mates with Aidan so it was sad to see how he was and obviously I was gutted for him missing the final as well.”
Hard-hitting Bateman returns for England’s second group game against France. He missed Friday’s 50-0 thrashing of Fiji and used a loophole in the rules to also count an England Knights fixture towards his ban. There’s an argument the Fiji warm-up shouldn’t count, though, as it was not deemed an official international due to its unlimited substitutions.
Bateman is concentrating on the action and hopefully going one step further than 2017 when he was part of England’s side that lost 6-0 to Australia in the final. He recalled: “We were so close last time. Even more so because no one expected us to get to the final.
"I think we were the only ones who believed we could get there. It still hurts. It’s a long time ago, especially with the World Cup getting postponed last year. But we just want to go out there and create our own history. We’re on home soil. It’s a massive tournament and we’re all excited to go."
There is plenty of hype around Samoa's chances and Bateman, who faced plenty of their stars during his two years in the NRL, said: "When you look at the team you can see why there’s been some noise around it. But there's some great squads here and it’ll be good. It'll be one of the best World Cups yet and it’s great for the international game. "That's what we’ve lacked in rugby league -the national game being at the top level - but this World Cup we can really put it out there.
"I’m using this time to get my body right. It's been a long season. It’s been a good time for me to rest up a bit and progress what I need to do to get ready for that France game."
* John Bateman is a Reign Total Body Fuel athlete, the No1 performacne energy drink brand in Great Britain who sponsor the England teams and RLWC2021.
