Rice coming to the boil as regular on England menu
DECLAN RICE says he now feels part of the furniture with England after winning his tenth cap, and hopes it will not be long before he is emulating his friend Mason Mount’s goalscoring exploits.
West Ham midfielder Rice starred in the centre of the park as the hosts beat the world’s No.1-ranked team Belgium 2-1 with a disciplined performance at Wembley in Sunday’s Nations League game.
For Rice, whose main job was to shackle Axel Witsel of Borussia Dortmund and keep one eye on Belgium’s Manchester City superstar captain Kevin De Bruyne, it was another leap forward in international terms at the age of just 21.
He believes he is maturing into an England regular after choosing the Three Lions over the Republic of Ireland in February 2019 and making his senior debut the following month. ‘Definitely. For the
I had never been in an environment like this but I feel more and more at home here
first camp I was in, I was very nervous,’ he said. ‘I had never been in an environment like this but I feel more and more at home here every time. ‘The lads have made me feel so welcome. I have ten caps now and winning against Belgium was just such an amazing feeling.’ Rice made one memorable foray down the left wing against Belgium, out of his central-midfield comfort zone, and admitted that was something he had been working on. ‘A couple of times I’ve intercepted balls and I believe in my ability to do it,’ he added.
‘I saw Marcus (Rashford) on the inside and just thought “keep going”. Those runs are something I’ve tried to add to my game.’ Rice has been close friends with Mount since their youth-team days at Chelsea and watched on in awe as the Blues man scored the deflected winner. He said: ‘I was delighted to see Mason score and I’m due one myself soon! That has to be an aim for me.’