{"id":394121,"date":"2026-04-23T18:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:14:14","slug":"broncos-forward-confirms-desire-to-play-for-england-at-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394121\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos forward confirms desire to play for England at World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Talty<\/a> made his NRL<\/a> debut last season and, since then, has gone from strength to strength at Red Hill.<\/p>\n

Although acknowledging he is still early in his career, Talty has told this masthead that he would take the opportunity to represent England<\/a> ahead of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a>, being eligible to represent the nation through his grandparents.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has proved to be a reliable impact bench option for Michael Maguire<\/a> this season, averaging 84 run metres and 26 post-contact metres a game.<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0Zero Tackle, Talty spoke about his desire to represent his mum’s side on the international stage.<\/p>\n

“I’d love the opportunity to represent my mother’s heritage,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My grandparents, on my mother’s side, were both born and raised in England<\/a>, and I’d love the opportunity to represent them.<\/p>\n

“It would mean a lot to them and my family.”<\/p>\n

\"NRLBRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 16: Ben Talty of the Broncos celebrates after scoring a try during the round 24 NRL match between Brisbane Broncos and Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium, on August 16, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However, the late bloomer knows there is no guarantee he will be at the 2026 RLWC, and maintains that his focus is on his playing consistency for the Broncos.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s important to not get too ahead of myself and just stay well-grounded,” Talty continued.<\/p>\n

“I understand where I’m at now in my career, and I’ve got a long way to go to even be considered for representative honours such as England<\/a>. I just want to keep training and playing consistently”.<\/p>\n

In his favour, though, Talty has previously played under McDermott while both men were at the Newcastle Knights<\/a>, attributing a lot of his development to the incoming England<\/a> coach.<\/p>\n

“I really respect Brian McDermott,” he exclaimed.<\/p>\n

“He taught me a lot about my footy, especially at a young age, and I really looked up to him as a coach.”<\/p>\n

Talty has been named to start in the absence of Payne Haas<\/a>, for the Broncos this Friday against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Talty made his NRL debut last season and, since then, has gone from strength to strength at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-394121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}