{"id":257145,"date":"2025-11-11T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257145\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:16:09","slug":"nrl-icon-amazed-by-omission-of-england-forward-duo-as-special-wigan-warriors-man-hailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257145\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL icon “amazed” by omission of England forward duo as “special” Wigan Warriors man hailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Super\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Australian rugby league legend, Matty Johns has revealed he was left \u201camazed\u201d by England\u2019s team selection for the Ashes, and has picked two players who he would have had in the squad \u2013 both of whom have ties to Wigan Warriors.<\/p>\n

An NRL veteran, Johns is a man with over 200 appearances in the Aussie competition, and was a Grand Final winner with the Newcastle Knights in 1997.<\/p>\n

On the representative stage, he played for the Kangaroos nine times and New South Wales four times, so he has plenty of experience in featuring in the biggest of matches.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the podcast he presents with his son, Cooper, the player-turned-pundit gave his thoughts on England\u2019s Ashes series, with Johns questioning the home nation\u2019s decision making before a ball had even been kicked.<\/p>\n

Two key selection omissions left the ex-half-back bewildered, with him saying both names would have been some of the first on his team sheet.<\/p>\n

Canberra Raiders\u2019 Matty Nicholson and Wigan Warriors\u2019 Junior Nsemba were those players, with the back-row pair being left out in favour of John Bateman, Kai Pearce-Paul and Kallum Watkins.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cA couple of players that were left out of the England squad amazed me.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of the first forwards I would have picked if I was Shaun Wane would have been Matty Nicholson, and a young bloke a Wigan back rower, Junior Nsemba.<\/p>\n

On the Wigan starlet, he added: \u201cHe is a very, very special player on the up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe maybe went off a little bit as far as his form, but when we were in Vegas, I tipped him to people, and said \u2018mate you watch this kid, he\u2019s just a powerhouse\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed that neither of those players were picked.\u201d<\/p>\n

In relation to Nicholson, he explained: \u201cUp until when he got injured at Magic Round, was the back rower in the competition. Outstanding player, Matty Nicholson. I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian rugby league legend, Matty Johns has revealed he was left \u201camazed\u201d by England\u2019s team selection for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-257145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257145","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=257145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}