{"id":802895,"date":"2026-10-15T01:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802895\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T01:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:18:14","slug":"england-rugby-league-world-cup-stars-enjoy-morning-tea-send-off-from-prime-minister-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802895\/","title":{"rendered":"England Rugby League World Cup stars enjoy morning tea send-off from Prime Minister Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has bid good luck to the three England teams travelling to the Rugby League World Cup, with the Leigh Leopards fan hosting representatives of the men\u2019s, women\u2019s and wheelchair sides at his Chequers estate.<\/p>\n

All three England sides will be competing for World Cup glory at the competition down under with the wheelchair side, who were represented at Chequers by Lewis King, the reigning champions after success in the 2022 Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n

Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides crashed out in the semi-finals at that tournament and they\u2019ll be aiming to go further this year at the tournaments that will run simultaneously.<\/p>\n

The men and women kick off their tournaments on Saturday morning in a double header with the women facing Wales before the men take on Tonga in Perth<\/a>, whilst King and his teammates\u2019 defence of their crown begins on October 30th when they face Wales in Wollongong.<\/p>\n

All three attended morning tea with Prime Minister Andy Burnham before flying out to Australia with O\u2019Neill capping off a pretty special year in doing so, having recently been crowned Super League Man of Steel and Rugby League Writers and Broadcaster\u2019s Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real privilege to be invited to Chequers and to represent England Rugby League alongside Jodie and Lewis,\u201d the Wigan Warriors hooker said.<\/p>\n

The end of IMG, retiring Ryan Hall and Rugby League World Cup\u2019s paywall problem \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill targetting Rugby League World Cup win to top off incredible year<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill spoke more on the discussions held with Burnham, explaining how valuable his support is to a sport that isn\u2019t always in the limelight.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe Prime Minister is obviously a big rugby league fan \u2013 I\u2019m from Leigh, the club he supports \u2013 and we spoke about that and plenty of other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great for us all to get the chance to chat about the sport we love and what\u2019s to come in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is a massive opportunity for all of us. We know the standards we must hit, but there is a lot of belief in the group, and now we want to give England supporters moments that will live long in the memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Tonga in the sights of the men\u2019s side, O\u2019Neill spoke about his desire to taste Rugby League World Cup success to cap off a strong season,<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a dream of mine to compete in a World Cup and I can\u2019t wait to get out there on Saturday and play in my first tournament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed some tremendous times with Wigan this season, winning the Challenge Cup, League Leaders\u2019 Shield and the Steve Prescott Man of Steel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now I want to go out and enjoy success with my country as well \u2013 and we all hope to do England proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

#EnglandRL\u2019s Men\u2019s, Women\u2019s and Wheelchair squads received a warm send-off from Andy Burnham at Chequers \ud83e\udd1d<\/p>\n

Brad O\u2019Neill, Jodie Cunningham and Lewis King were all invited to the official country residence of the Prime Minister last week \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f https:\/\/t.co\/4baOr9WGWp<\/p>\n

\u2014 England Rugby League (@England_RL) October 14, 2026<\/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":"Prime Minister Andy Burnham has bid good luck to the three England teams travelling to the Rugby League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802895","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\/802895","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=802895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}