I have a Russia shirt, now I have my sights on England jersey

I have been lucky enough to have been in the England squad for the last few years. I seem to get in the England squads but haven’t really played that much.

That’s the next step for me. I am quite happy with my form and I am just delighted to still be in the mix.

To be fair, I think Steve McNamara will know his team anyway by now, my form has been as good as I could have hoped. Obviously, the team’s form at the Giants has not been brilliant of late which can have an effect on the players in the side regarding international call-ups. Hopefully, I have done enough in the games I have played to get a position in the team for the Exiles match.

I think the Exiles matches need working on but I like the concept and I like the idea behind it. It’s the best players from abroad get to play in it. While it’s a massive challenge for England, it is also a huge game for the Exiles.

I think it’s going to be a really good game at Langtree Park, but I want the fans to get behind it as well. Show their support, because these are the best players in this country playing against each other.

With the second game being at my home ground of Huddersfield, it’s fantastic and that is another reason why I want to be playing at the Galpharm Stadium. They have just relaid the pitch, it’s looking fantastic at the moment. It would be exciting to play at the Galpharm, another chance for me as I played against New Zealand there before when we won. I have fond memories of playing for my country at the Galpharm.

Hopefully, I will also get the chance to play against a couple of my Giants team-mates, who are in the Exiles squad in David Faiumu amd Luke O’Donnell. Hopefully, Luke is not going to try and take my head off, or anything like that. I wouldn’t put it past him but, seriously, it will be a challenge whoever we play against.

I can’t really put my finger on it (what’s gone wrong, having lost their last four matches) at Huddersfield, there’s quite a lot of areas where we have probably slackened off a little bit. It’s lots of small things, we have been looking at videos and things like that to find out why we have been poor. It seems to be quite a lot of areas, small bits, but I don’t think it’s down to effort levels which is a big thing and I think we can take positives out of that. We know we can turn it around, we are in a little bit of a lull, but every team goes through that in a season.

We now play Hull KR on Monday and I think playing Monday nights is a fantastic concept. I was at the St Helens game against Leeds, the first one, and there were 15,000 people there. It was a really good night, a great spectacle and, hopefully, our game against Hull KR – which I think is two quality sides, going full out against each other – should make for an interesting evening.

I think the planners have got it right this time on Monday, with England’s footballers kicking off earlier in the day.

I played in a game when Manchester United and City were playing the decisive games of the season and we ended up getting about 2,000 fans at the game, everyone just wanted to watch it on TV. This time we should get some more viewers at least, it’s quite smartly drawn out, Giants playing on the back of England. I think it’s just going to be a really great night for sport in general.

We have just done a sweepstake for the Euro finals, and the team you pick out you have to buy the shirt. So as well as England, I will be supporting Russia. So If you see me in a Russia shirt, you will know why.