Widdop’s spark could provide answer for England’s problems

GARETH Widdop knew he had done something serious given the “worst pain imaginable.”
Gareth Widdop.Gareth Widdop.
Gareth Widdop.

However, it was not until a Melbourne Storm physio of nearly three decades experience gave his own insight into the events that the stand-off fully understood what he had encountered and the long battle he would face to even have a chance of making tomorrow’s World Cup opener.

It was at the end of June that the England player endured an agonising dislocated hip in Storm’s loss to Gold Coast Titans.

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Medical staff initially feared he would not play again until 2014.

However, he was remarkably back in 12 weeks and the Halifax-born schemer is in line to face Australia at Cardiff.

“It looked liked something or nothing on the footage,” he recalled to the Yorkshire Post, about the impact he took in an innocuous tackle.

“I’ve never had too many bad injuries but at the time I couldn’t tell you just how painful it was.

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“That injury just doesn’t happen in rugby league. It’s not supposed to happen.

“Our physio has been around 28 years and he said he’d had just two in all that time.

“It was the worst pain I could ever imagine. I got painkillers but they didn’t really kick in until I got to hospital. And then they put me to sleep.”

Ironically, England coach Steve McNamara was in Melbourne that night on a three-week trip, ready to speak to the 24-year-old about the World Cup.

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He says he did not think Widdop – who emigrated with his family from West Yorkshire when aged 16 – would have a “cat in hell’s chance” of making the tournament.

“I worked really hard to get back, but at the time I definitely thought I had no chance either,” admitted the player, who has signed with St George-Ilawarra on a four-year contract starting next season.

“These tournaments don’t come around too often. I was devastated at the time as I thought ‘My season is over and I might never play in a World Cup ever again’.

“But after seeing the specialist after the first week there was hope.”

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That hope was turned into real belief when he managed to play the last two games of Melbourne’s season and prove his fitness to McNamara.

Now Widdop is keen to press home his claims for a starting berth which would mean splitting up the coach’s favoured pick of captain Kevin Sinfield and Rangi Chase.

Though he started as a full-back at Melbourne, understudy to the brilliant Billy Slater, he has evolved into a half-back of some repute over the last two seasons.

Widdop played there in last season’s NRL Grand Final win and a World Club Challenge victory over Leeds Rhinos earlier this year, becoming an integral part of Storm’s star-studded side.

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Working alongside the scrum-half Cooper Cronk and hooker Cameron Smith – the “Big Three” with Slater for Melbourne, Queensland and Australia – has developed his game markedly.

Widdop is confident of being able to take charge of England, for whom he has mainly been used off the bench since debuting in 2010, and there is a growing clamour for that to happen after the shambles of last week’s friendly defeat to Italy.

“I class myself as a starting half or five-eighth (stand-off),” he said. “I’ve played in the NRL for the last four years and been in the play-offs for them and won a Grand Final.

“So I want to be starting and that’s what I see. But, at the end of the day, it’s not my choice.

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“It’s the coach’s decision so we’ll just have to get on with whatever he decides.

“It comes down to his decision. I believe I can do a job if I start but if he decides to not go that way, all I can do is keep training and, hopefully, I’ll get a chance and grab it with both hands.

“I class myself as an off-the-cuff ball-playing type of player.

“I’ve learned over the years to direct a team after playing alongside the likes of Cooper Cronk, but my style is to play what I see rather than be really structured.”

Amen to that. After all that injury torment, his revival and spark could be just what stuttering England need.