{"id":229689,"date":"2025-10-28T07:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229689\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T07:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:51:13","slug":"mikey-lewis-named-as-one-of-two-england-stars-under-pressure-by-nrl-grand-final-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229689\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikey Lewis named as one of two England stars under pressure by NRL Grand Final winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL Grand Final winner has named the England players he believes are under pressure following the opening Ashes defeat.\"MikeyMikey Lewis was picked to start in the opening Ashes Test against Australia after a historic treble-winning campaign with Hull KR.<\/p>\n

NRL Grand Final winner and former New South Wales star Michael Ennis has identified two England players he believes are under pressure ahead of the second Ashes Test in Liverpool this Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Kangaroos ran out comfortable 26-6 winners at Wembley in the opening blockbuster, with Saturday’s Test at Everton\u2019s Hill Dickinson Stadium a must-win for Shaun Wane’s side to keep the series alive.<\/p>\n

Calls are growing for coach Wane to make changes<\/a>, with AJ Brimson named as 18th man for the first Test. Jack Welsby has come under scrutiny after a difficult display, and Ennis has flagged another England star he thinks could be in the firing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack Welsby no doubt is under pressure,\u201d Ennis said on Fox League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAJ Brimson 18th man being left out of the side was really surprising and the other one Mikey Lewis, who has been great for Hull KR<\/a> this year, really struggled to have an impact on the game, so it will be fascinating to see what Shaun Wane does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast Titans star Brimson, 27, successfully switched his international allegiance to England earlier this year, having represented Australia during the World Cup Nines in 2019.<\/p>\n

He was one of seven players to not be selected to play under the famous Wembley arch, alongside Morgan Smithies, Harry Smith, Harry Newman, Joe Burgess, Kallum Watkins and Mikolaj Oledzki.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Brimson has to come into the side and through that middle part of the field is where he is most suited, so I would play him at full-back,\u201d continued Ennis, who made more than 270 NRL appearances and won the premiership in 2016 with Cronulla Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is a brilliant full-back and that support play is up there with the best in the world and the best in our competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow often have we seen half chances turned into points with Brimson\u2019s instinct and ability and speed to push through the middle of the field?<\/p>\n

\u201cHad we seen him around George Williams at Wembley, they might have posed a different threat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL Grand Final winner has named the England players he believes are under pressure following the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,20370,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-229689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-rugby-league","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}