Watts lights way to World Cup

HULL prop Liam Watts hopes his barnstorming performance in Saturday’s demolition of Leeds could edge him closer to an England World Cup spot.

The Challenge Cup holders destroyed the Rhinos 43-24 at Doncaster to put them on course to retain the trophy they won last August.

The comfortable semi-final win was chiselled on a dominant pack and the playmaking qualities of Marc Sneyd and Albert Kelly.

Imposing forward Watts was among Hull’s try-scorers and said: “I went through a bit of a sticky patch with a couple of sin-binnings, a sending off and being banned. But that’s behind me now and I’m enjoying my rugby again.

“I’ve been playing some decent minutes and it’s always nice to get on the scoresheet, so hopefully I can kick on now and get in the England squad at the end of the year.

“I was involved with the England Knights when I was at Hull KR and have just fallen away in the last couple of years, which has been disappointing. But I’m playing some good rugby now and it would be nice to make the World Cup squad with a few of the other lads from Hull – Scott Taylor, Jamie Shaul and Marc Sneyd.

“My main focus is to play well for the rest of the year. If I do that then I should stay on the radar for England.”

In beating Warrington last year, Hull secured a historic first victory at Wembley after eight previous failures.

Yet Hull’s Grand Final bid fell away after they had won the Challenge Cup. Watts is confident that they can challenge on both fronts this year, however.

He said: “There will be no stepping off the gas in the next few weeks leading up to Wembley because there are three or four teams in the league who could catch us.

“We’re a confident team and we knew we had beaten Leeds quite early on, with 10 or 15 minutes to go, and we put quite a convincing score on them.

“We took our chances really well and put them to the sword in the end.”