McDermott, who succeeded Shaun Wane in April, has also made a major selection call at full-back.<\/p>\n
AJ Brimson has been chosen ahead of Jack Welsby in the key role for England’s first game in Group B-C – a combined pool of six teams, from which the top two will go through to the semi-finals early next month.<\/p>\n
McDermott indicated that he was keen to use heritage players – those who qualify for England through family background – to ensure the strongest possible squad.<\/p>\n
And Brisbane-born Brimson – who made his England debut in last year’s Ashes series against Australia – is one of four such players in the squad, alongside England debutant Max King.<\/p>\n
Bulldogs prop King, born in Huddersfield while his Australian father David was a player there, features alongside fellow debutant Hugo Savala, part of Sydney Roosters’ NRL Grand Final-winning squad. Victor Radley is also in the XIII.<\/p>\n
All of the men’s and women’s teams for the first round of matches between Thursday and Sunday were announced on Tuesday at 06:00 BST.<\/p>\n
England women’s coach Stu Barrow named his squad for their opener against Wales on Saturday in Perth (07:35 BST).<\/p>\n
Jasmin Strange and Connie Boyd will make their international debuts, while uncapped Hope Millard is among the interchanges.<\/p>\n
Opponents Wales will give a debut to second-row forward Paige Travis – who played for England at the last World Cup four years ago.<\/p>\n
Tayla Preston – who captains Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL Women’s Premiership – will start at scrum-half, with former rugby union international Ffion Lewis alongside her at stand-off, while Hannah Bluck will represent Wales at a fourth different sport. <\/p>\n
Bluck has won senior Wales honours in rugby union as well as gaining junior rank recognition in football and basketball.<\/p>\n
England women: Fran Goldthorp, Anna Davies, Georgia Wilson, Connie Boyd, Amelia Brown, Isabel Rowe, Georgia Roche, Mary Coleman, Keara Bennett, Hollie-Mae Dodd, Jasmin Strange, Eva Hunter, Megan Williams.<\/p>\n
Interchange: Jodie Cunningham, Vicky Whitfield, Jenna Foubister, Hope Millard.<\/p>\n
Wales women: Leanne Burnell, Dani McGifford, Hannah Bluck, Zoe Heeley, Frances Layton, Ffion Lewis, Tayla Preston, Agnes Wood, Jasmine Gibbons, Emily Hughes, Georgia Cussons, Paige Travis, Bethan Dainton.<\/p>\n
Interchange: Carys Marsh, Kathryn Salter, Katie Carr, Erin Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McDermott, who succeeded Shaun Wane in April, has also made a major selection call at full-back. AJ Brimson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-629143","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\/629143","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=629143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}