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Consistently overlooked by Noble during his time as Great Britain coach, the winger's career often threatened to go into freefall during the two and half years the two worked together at Wigan and just a few months ago Calderwood suffered the ignominy of being dropped to the Warriors' reserves.

The poignancy of his call-up into the national team for the World Cup just a few days after he played his last match for the Lancastrians will not have been lost on Calderwood, who has emerged as the favourite to fill the void on the left wing created by the absence of the injured Gareth Raynor.

Calderwood will join Raynor at Hull next season but not before he has travelled to the other side of the planet looking to prove to the world, including Noble and himself, that he is ready to realise the potential he displayed as one of Super League's most promising juniors.

After claiming over 40 tries in 2000, his first season with the Leeds Academy, Calderwood went on to become the Rhinos' top try-scorer in 2002 (23) and 2003 (25) before scoring 35 in 2005, including 27 in the regular Super League season.

Unfortunately after joining Wigan under Ian Millward for 2006, Calderwood scored just 32 times in a move which served to offer incontrovertible proof for any player angling to change clubs for purely financial reasons that the grass is not always greener.

His career was not helped by a collision with advertising hoardings at Hull in Wigan's penultimate match of last season, when he broke an ankle which sidelined him until mid-March.

Nor did playing on the right wing under a coach who encouraged his team to attack down the left.

But as the light at the end of a very dark tunnel loomed ever closer this summer, Calderwood began to rediscover the form that made him Super League's top try-scorer in his last year at Headingley.

England coach Tony Smith, Calderwood's coach at Leeds in 2004 and 2005, had been monitoring the winger's progress and any doubts he may have held that the 26-year-old would be a valuable part of his World Cup plans were dispelled in spectacular fashion in Wigan's last match of the season.

The Warriors may have lost
18-14 to Leeds in a Super League final eliminator, and Calderwood may not have scored, but he did deliver the mightiest performance of his life to pull off four try-saving tackles and prove that he is anything but a mere running machine.

"I don't just get paid for scoring tries, I get paid to save them as well," said Calderwood.

"That showed against Leeds but I've defended well in other games too. It's just that people don't notice.

"I honestly didn't think I'd be in the World Cup squad after my shaky start to the year when I was playing in the under-21s but I felt good later in the year.

"I spoke to Tony after we beat Catalans in the play-offs and he told me I was in contention and that I should look to try and play well against Leeds.

"I think my performance against Leeds did me no harm, although it still came as a bit of a surprise when Tony called me in after training on Monday and broke the news."

London-born Calderwood had indicated a willingness to represent Scotland in the World Cup – his paternal grandparents were born north of the border – but then pledged his full commitment to England when Smith named him in his train-on squad, even though there were no certainties that he would make the final 24.

"My ambition all along has been to make the England squad and I'm thrilled to be given the chance," said Calderwood, who starts on the left wing in tonight's Gillette Fusion international against Wales.

"I know I'm under pressure to prove what I can do. There are no certainties that I am going to play in Australia so Friday gives me a chance to put down a marker.

"If I take my form of the last six weeks into the World Cup I should be all right."