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Former Sale Shark Charnley's decision to return to rugby league pays off after he's named in England squad

By Online Editors
Josh Charnely while at Sale Sharks

Former Sale Shark Josh Charnley has been included in a 30-man England RL performance squad named on Monday by coach Wayne Bennett.

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Charnley, who won eight England RL caps from 2012-14 and played in the 2013 World Cup, is selected for the first time since his return from rugby union last March after scoring 31 tries in 34 appearances for the Wolves.

Charnley made 32 appearances for Sale, scoring four tries, but the Sharks allowed him to transfer back to league in 2018 following his failure to secure regular game time.

Charnley made the cross-code switch from League to Union and joined the Sharks in late 2016 after a hugely successful six year spell with Wigan Warriors for whom he played more than 170 times, winning two Super League titles and two Challenge Cup medals.

The powerful winger impressed everyone with his professionalism and commitment during his time with the Sharks but ultimately he was unable to crack a first team starting berth in Steve Diamond’s side.

Commenting at the time the Director said: “Josh has been a pleasure to work with and he has been a great servant for Sale.

“However, we have a highly competitive squad here at Sale and Josh’s desire was to play every week and we couldn’t guarantee him that.

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“Given how important his desire to play every week was to Josh and to the club we thought that this opportunity was right for both parties.

England elite performance squad:

L Gale, A Milner, J Trueman, L Watts (all Castleford), S Tomkins (Catalans Dragons), J McGillvary (Huddersfield), J Connor, J Shaul, S Taylor (all Hull FC), R Mulhern (Hull KR), S Ward, K Watkins (both Leeds), J Lomax, T Makinson, M Percival, J Roby, L Thompson, A Walmsley (all St Helens), T Johnstone, R Lyne (both Wakefield), J Charnley, D Clark, B Currie, C Hill, J Hughes, S Ratchford (all Warrington), O Gildart, J Greenwood, S O’Loughlin, G Williams (all Wigan).

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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