No Jackson Hastings or Blake Austin in Shaun Wane’s initial England squad

Drew Darbyshire 03 Mar 2020 12:38 PM

Eligible players Jackson Hastings and Blake Austin have not been included in Shaun Wane’s first England squad.

Hastings and Austin were born and raised in Australia but are eligible to play for England through their grandmothers. They both played for Great Britain last autumn – but they have not made Wane’s initial squad.

Wane has invited 31 prospective Ashes candidates to a players’ gathering at Old Trafford on March 23 – and included a further eight NRL-based players on his ‘watch list’ ahead of their autumn series against Australia.

The NRL-based players are John Bateman, Josh Hodgson, Ryan Sutton, Elliott Whitehead and George Williams (all Canberra Raiders), Tom Burgess (South Sydney Rabbitohs), James Graham (St George Illawarra Dragons) and Kallum Watkins (Gold Coast Titans).

Wane said: “It’s too early to be selecting Ashes squads – a lot can happen between now and the end of the season – but I’ve invited a group of players who are uppermost in my thoughts right now. I want to tell them that face-to-face and share with them my plans for the rest of the year.

“There are some very talented players, both in Super League and the NRL, and I’ll be monitoring their progress, week in, week out. I’m very excited about the prospect of working with them and the players who most impress will be the ones selected for the Ashes series.

“I realise that there are some notable exceptions at this stage, and I would say to those players is that this isn’t the squad, the door is never closed and outstanding form will be rewarded.”

England senior squad

Josh Charnley (Warrington Wolves)

Daryl Clark (Warrington Wolves)

Mike Cooper (Warrington Wolves)

Ben Currie (Warrington Wolves)

Niall Evalds (Salford Red Devils)

Liam Farrell (Wigan Warriors)

Luke Gale (Leeds Rhinos)

Oliver Gildart (Wigan Warriors)

Josh Griffin (Hull FC)

Zak Hardaker (Wigan Warriors)

Chris Hill (Warrington Wolves)