Jerry starts Brisbane final
HUDDERSFIELD Giants winger Jermaine ‘Jerry’ McGillvary will take the field in Rugby League’s World Cup final in Brisbane on Saturday.
The 29-year-old homegrown talent has, unsurprisingly given his try scoring feats in the tournament in the southern hemisphere, is in England coach Wayne Bennett’s side to take on reigning world champions Australia.
And a former Giant will be among the match officials with former Academy player Chris Kendall (pictured below) being named as one of the touchjudges at the Suncorp Stadium.
Veteran forward Chris Heighington has been recalled by England for the World Cup final against Australia.
The 34-year-old Cronulla second rower has been handed the vacant bench spot, with James Roby starting at hooker in place of the injured Josh Hodgson.
It is the only change to the team that survived a torrid late onslaught to beat Tonga in last Saturday’s semi-final in Auckland.
Roby, who won his 30th cap at Mount Smart Stadium, is the only other specialist hooker in head coach Wayne Bennett’s 24-man squad and will be expected to play long minutes at the Suncorp Stadium.
Instead of opting for Stefan Ratchford or George Williams to provide back-up, Bennett will now hope Roby can get through most, if not all, of Saturday’s game.
Heighington played in England’s opening two matches of the World Cup against Australia and Lebanon but sat out the last group game against France as well as the two knock-out games so far.
Captain Sean O’Loughlin has been named in the team as he battles to shake off a quad injury sustained in the semi-final.
G Widdop (St George Illawarra); J McGillvary (Huddersfield), K Watkins (Leeds), J Bateman (Wigan), R Hall (Leeds); K Brown (Warrington), L Gale (Castleford); C Hill (Warrington), J Roby (St Helens), J Graham (Canterbury Bulldogs), S Burgess (South Sydney), E Whitehead (Canberra), S O’Loughlin (Wigan, capt). Interchange: A Walmsley (St Helens), B Currie (Warrington), T Burgess (South Sydney), C Heighington (Cronulla). ■■Australia’s Gerard Sutton will referee the final, with England’s Ben Thaler appointed as video referee.
Sutton, who was in charge of the first semi-final between Australia and Fiji, got the nod over fellow countryman Matt Cecchin, who attracted a host of criticism for failing to referee Andrew Fifita’s late disallowed try to the video referee during England’s Tonga game.
Rugby League World Cup head of officiating, Tony Archer, said: “It was obviously a difficult decision to pick the referee for the final after Matt Cecchin’s and Gerry’s excellent performances in the semifinals and throughout the tournament but I’m confident were have chosen the right person to do job.
“I’ve been very satisfied with our officials and we will certainly continue to see the benefits of having the opportunity to bring refs together from the northern and southern hemispheres into camp and learn from each other in such an environment for the first time.
“It has allowed us not to just deliver high level of officiating in this tournament but to also bring in some younger refs with a view of progressing to the 2020-21 Rugby League World Cup.”