Fit-again Salford star Kallum Watkins would love to force his way back into the England reckoning - in his new position of second-row.
The ex-Leeds Rhinos captain Watkins, 31, was once rated one of the world’s finest centres. But since coming back from his third knee reconstruction at Easter he has been playing in the pack for the Red Devils. Watkins, who lines up against Castleford on Friday, has been impressive and was in cracking form as they beat Leeds on Sunday.
He said: "I am enjoying it. I’ve been used to the defensive side of things as I did it a couple of times earlier on in my career at Leeds. It’s just trying to find my way around the field at times. Sometimes I get a little bit lost. But I get directed around well by Brodie Croft who was immense for us at the weekend. The key thing is I’m just enjoying being back playing.”
That is no surprise having missed ten months of action with that latest ACL agony. And with a World Cup looming at the end of the year, the 25-cap international hopes to persuade England boss Shaun Wane he can still do a job for his country. He was in Wane’s squad as a centre in April last year before injury struck although the World Cup being postponed last autumn has worked in his favour.
Watkins was, understandably, omitted from the latest squad in March. But, by the end of the season, if his current progression continues, he could throw himself forward as a second-row against the likes of John Bateman, Liam Farrell, Elliott Whitehead and Ben Currie. The three-time Super League Grand Final winner said: "I’ve not really spoken to Waney.
"I saw him after the Wigan game and said ‘hi’ to him and he said it was good to see me back. I was in the previous squad but not this one now as I’ve obviously been out so long. He’s bedding in a couple of younger guys. For me, it’s just about gaining some more consistency.
"Yes, I’m in a new position but I’m just out there playing and trying to play well. But it is kind of an end goal for me to get to the World Cup. It will be a nice story: the last time I played in an England shirt was the World Cup final so it would be a nice story especially with the injury last year. Before everything got changed (tournament delayed until 2022), I thought that was it for me internationally."
Paul Rowley's Salford are looking to start rising up the table after nearly beating champions St Helens and Wigan before ending a six-game losing run against Leeds.
Watkins said: "We've a really good team who have something brewing. We’ve got some very good players who have been successful before but have been at really good clubs.
"We’ve all bedded in together to get a good team. Rowls is leading that with his coaching and he’s getting the best out of us and that belief in this team. It’s good."
On his transformation to a hard-running forward, the ex-Gold Coast Titans player admitted he never envisaged it happening.
He said: "We had quite a laugh about it in rehab as basically you just do a load of weights and get a little bit bigger! Basically, I put some weight on through the pre-season and knew I’d chew it back off when I started running. I’m a little bigger than when I played last year. I was about 95 kilos then. I got up to about 103 in pre-season and now I’ve knocked it down to about 100. It's going well."
