{"id":199385,"date":"2025-10-09T03:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T03:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199385\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T03:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T03:31:08","slug":"2025-ashes-ex-nrl-centre-in-the-mix-for-surprise-return-to-england-squad-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199385\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Ashes: Ex-NRL centre in the mix for surprise return to England squad – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former NRL<\/a> centre has been linked with a surprise return to the England<\/a> national team ahead of the 2025 Ashes Series<\/a> against Australia<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

Speaking with\u00a0All Out Rugby League<\/a>, England<\/a> coach Shaun Wane<\/a> confirmed that former Gold Coast Titans<\/a> centre Kallum Watkins<\/a> is in the mix to represent the nation for the first time in three years.<\/p>\n

Now playing in the forwards, Watkins has had a standout 2025 campaign in the Super League<\/a> under Brad Arthur<\/a>, which saw him return to Leeds Rhinos<\/a> after a six-year stint with the Salford Red Devils<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Kallum Watkins<\/a> is in the squad,” Wane said.<\/p>\n

“He’s played well, he’s in good form, and he’s an international player. He’s in the 40-man squad and training with us.”<\/p>\n

Now at the backend of his career, the 34-year-old spent two seasons down under with the Gold Coast Titans<\/a> in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

However, he failed to live up to expectations, featuring in only eight matches and was unable to cross the line.<\/p>\n

\"LeedsLONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 29: Tom Briscoe and Kallum Watkins of Leeds Rhinos have a smile after defeating Hull KR 50-0 during the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final between Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR at Wembley Stadium on August 29, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Daniel Smith\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The training squad will be cut down to a 24-man squad on Monday, October 13, following the 2025 Super League<\/a> Grand Final.<\/p>\n

NRL<\/a> regulars AJ Brimson<\/a>, Billy Smith<\/a>, Dominic Young<\/a>, Herbie Farnworth<\/a>, John Bateman<\/a>, Kai Pearce-Paul<\/a>, Matty Nicholson<\/a> and Morgan Smithies<\/a> are all set to be under consideration to be named.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sydney Roosters<\/a> forward Victor Radley<\/a> has ruled himself out of the 2025 Ashes Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m close. But these are the big games of the year, you know. There’s a lot still to happen, but I’ve got a rough idea of what our 18 or 19 of that 24 is going to be,” Wane told Love Rugby League.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I’m probably sure on the first 18 or 19, and I’ll do what’s right in my heart.<\/p>\n

“It won’t please everyone, and I’ll probably pick someone that’s going to get me some stick, but I’ve had that all my career, and what I will say is that I’m totally confident in the players I’ll select, every one of them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former NRL centre has been linked with a surprise return to the England national team ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-199385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}