{"id":74165,"date":"2025-08-17T22:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T22:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74165\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T22:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T22:33:13","slug":"nrl-star-reaches-out-to-shaun-wane-to-declare-allegiance-to-england-ahead-of-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74165\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL star reaches out to Shaun Wane to declare allegiance to England ahead of Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NRL\"\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

Sydney Roosters centre Billy Smith has put his hand up to play for England against Australia this autumn, Shaun Wane has revealed. Smith has been one of the stars of Sydney\u2019s season so far as Trent Robinson\u2019s side push to secure a spot in the NRL play-offs.<\/p>\n

Smith has made 14 appearances for the Roosters this year with eight tries coming along the way including five in his last six outings in the NRL. As such, he\u2019s one of the most in-form centres in the sport at present and the 25-year-old\u2019s displays come following a difficult few years with injuries.<\/p>\n

The Sydney-born centre has been in and around the Rooters fold since 2019 but injuries have restricted him to just 41 NRL outings. He never saw a minute of first grade action last season due to injury and with Smith suffering three ACL tears, ankle joint damage, shoulder and Lisfranc issues, it\u2019s fair to say his career has been blighted by issues.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s made significant progress this year, though, and he\u2019s keen to end the season by pulling on an England<\/a> shirt and representing his heritage.<\/p>\n

Shaun Wane on NRL man Billy Smith<\/p>\n

\u201cBilly Smith contacted me, and I do like it when players contact me to express their desire to represent England,\u201d Wane told the Sydney Morning Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for that and, like Victor Radley, it\u2019s a sign that he wants to play for England. It goes a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do rate him. I\u2019m a big fan of the NRL and all of the quality athletes playing in it. Billy Smith is one of the best athletes, he\u2019s a great centre and he would be a great asset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like that he has contacted me, that means a lot and I will be pursuing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Smith\u2019s form following the sheer amount of injuries he has suffered, Wane said: \u201cThat shows character, which is what I like. I\u2019m also a big fan of Victor Radley. He\u2019s as close to English as they come in terms of his mannerisms and the way he thinks, his personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d imagine Billy Smith would be the same sort of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith is just the latest Australian born player to put their hand up to play for England this year, following Gold Coast Titans\u2019 AJ Brimson. Wane isn\u2019t blessed with a raft of centre options either, making the potential of calling Smith up to represent England all the more appealing.<\/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":"Sydney Roosters centre Billy Smith has put his hand up to play for England against Australia this autumn,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-74165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165","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=74165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}