England boss Steve McNamara has to make changes for Saturday’s final and deciding Test against New Zealand – and unleash the Giants wing-centre partnership of Leroy Cudjoe and Jermaine McGillvary.
Although Wigan’s John Bateman is an outstanding back-row forward, he’s no centre.
His strong drives and neat footwork have been impressive, but those qualities really would better be deployed down the middle, because feeding his winger – who’s been Leeds’ Ryan Hall in the England set-up – isn’t something that comes naturally to the former Bradford Bulls man. Hall has been surviving on scraps.
Admittedly, neither Bateman or Hall were able to have that great an influence during the 9-2 second Test defeat to the Kiwis in London last weekend, because of the lack of service coming from half-backs Gareth Widdop and George Williams.
So why not go for it at Wigan’s DW Stadium on Saturday by handing an England debut to Castleford’s Super League Dream Team scrum-half Luke Gale and let Cudjoe and McGillvary take their destructive combination onto the international stage.
New Zealand know very little about Gale and his particular skill set (to provide that potential X factor), while they also know very little about McGillvary.
But with Cudjoe possessing all the centre skills to provide his Huddersfield teammate with the service a world-class winger requires, the tourists could soon find out exactly what McGillvary is all about.
Here’s hoping!
