Alex Walmsley claims a first international cap with England, something that injury almost certainly deprived him of last year, is not on his mind as he aims to steer St Helens a step closer to a top-four finish in Super League at Wigan.
The prop was one of the three nominees for the Man of Steel award last season alongside the Leeds pair of Adam Cuthbertson and Zak Hardaker, the eventual winner. However, he was forced to undergo foot surgery immediately after the Saints’ semi-final defeat by the Rhinos, ruling out any chance of a call into Steve McNamara’s squad for the Test series victory against New Zealand.
The early part of Walmsley’s 2016, like that of Saints, was inconsistent as he returned from injury but, with Keiron Cunningham’s side on a run of seven consecutive wins heading into the derby with Wigan and Walmsley nearing his best again, the 26-year-old has sent out an ominous warning: there is still more to come.
“My main priority is St Helens; it always has been since I signed here,” Walmsley said. “I’ve got some more in the tank to come out; my match fitness is the best it’s been all year, which is pleasing from my point of view, and I’m getting back to something like where I was. If I keep my performances steady enough and good enough, we’ll see where we are at the end of the year in regards to England.”
The Saints took a significant step towards a semi-final berth last weekend courtesy of victory against fifth-placed Catalans Dragons, which opened up a four-point gap between the top four and the chasing pack. Yet, while Walmsley has refused to get complacent about what appears an increasingly likely participation in the play-offs, he also has one eye on the teams above the Saints. Victory at the DW Stadium would move them above Wigan into third with four games left.
“It was in the back of our minds that it was such a big game and it’s good to have that bit of a cushion now,” he said. “The message is still the same, though: we’ll let the league take care of itself and we’ll perform as we can every week. Mathematically we can still finish top but we can finish fifth too, so we’ve just got to take things one game at a time.
“The Super 8s is tough. It’s not going to get easier. All those boys at the top have got to start playing each other soon, though, which means some of them are going to be dropping some points. We were slow off the mark last week against Catalans and we can’t afford to do that again.”
Walmsley, however, is expecting a backlash from Wigan following the Saints’ victory in the most recent meeting between the two sides last month. He said: “We’ll only worry about Wigan, though; they’ll be a different animal to the one we faced two weeks ago and they’ll be really wanting to get one over on us after what we did there.
“It took us 35 minutes to get going against Catalans but it was great to grind out yet another win heading into a huge game this weekend. We can’t be starting slow again in the Super 8s because there’s so much at stake.”
Cunningham will welcome back the half-back, Theo Fages, from an extended injury lay-off to compensate for the absence of Luke Walsh. The half-back was handed a two-match suspension by the Rugby Football League’s disciplinary panel on Wednesday, as was the forward, Luke Thompson, who will also be missing.
