Ever heard the one about the electrician, the lifeguard and the builder who went on to represent their country? There could be as many as 15 debutants when a new-look England side takes to the field against France in Warrington on Saturday afternoon, with Shaun Wane sticking to his promise of ripping up the squad that fell short in last year’s Rugby League World Cup and integrating a younger group of players in anticipation for the next tournament in France in 2025.
All of those players have their own unique stories to tell, but three in particular can scarcely believe they have reached this point. As recently as 18 months ago, Tyler Dupree and James Harrison were not even full-time Super League players, with Dupree involved in the Oldham side relegated to League 1, the sport’s lowest professional tier, and Harrison playing for Featherstone Rovers. They were released by Leeds and Bradford respectively as teenagers, told they were not good enough and, cast aside from the professional ranks, forced to go part-time.
However, on Saturday Dupree, who has excelled for Salford since signing last year and Harrison, who has done the same at Warrington, have not only proven those clubs wrong but are preparing to make their international bows as part of Wane’s new-look England. “It wasn’t just a low point in my career, it was one of the lowest points in my life,” Dupree says of rejection by the Rhinos. “The club I’d grown up supporting and gave everything to just let me go like I was nothing. It has fuelled the fire in me. They spurred me on to do better and prove them wrong. I’ve worked in children’s homes, on a building site … anything not to have to depend on my mum. But doing that made me realise life on a building site wasn’t for me.”
Harrison agrees that being told he was not good enough was a difficult moment to take. “I thought it was the end of my career being told I wasn’t going to make it,” he says. “Devastating. I ended up doing some work as an electrician, I even worked at Super League games for Opta doing the stats and hoping one day I’d be out on the field. I guess it shows hard work pays off.” Harrison was picked up by Batley and even spent time with the now-defunct expansion club, Oxford.
Following last year’s move to Warrington that earned Harrison his big break, he will now become part of an exclusive club when he follows in the footsteps of his father, Karl, and plays for England. Only a handful of father-son duos in the history of the game have achieved that. “He was the first person I called when I got told,” Harrison says. “If you’d told me when I was playing for Oxford that I’d be a full England international … it’s been a whirlwind few years.”
Being let go at 18 is one thing but Matty Ashton was not even deemed good enough to get that far. The Warrington winger spent his teens playing amateur rugby with Rochdale Mayfield after being overlooked by the elite academies. He worked on a zero-hours contract as a lifeguard in a hotel to make ends meet before Championship side Swinton offered him a semi-professional deal in 2019. Within a he was signed by Warrington and is now one of the most exciting wide players in the English game.
“I look back now and it’s just about having an attitude where you never give up,” Ashton says. “If you don’t get picked up by 18, it’s not the end. I’ve done it a different way and that’s set me up to be the player I am today. There won’t be many professionals who played amateur rugby at adult level, but it toughened me up for sure. It made me appreciate how lucky I’d be to get this far.”
All three potential debutants look back on their unconventional journey to the international game with pride. But they also hope they serve as an inspiration to other players who are told they aren’t good enough to play professionally. “It’s a story for people to be inspired by I guess,” Dupree says. “I’ve been at the bottom, I know what it’s like. But it doesn’t mean your career is over. Hopefully, young players who are in my position now see that.”
