The St Helens coach, Keiron Cunningham, has labelled Wayne Bennett’s plans to take the England squad to a training camp in Dubai as “abysmal” as Saints faces the prospect of losing several key players for a significant part of pre-season training.
Jonny Lomax and Mark Percival are likely to be among a group of players Bennett takes to Dubai for a 12-day camp in January in an effort to increase England’s chances of success at the 2017 World Cup. It is understood, however, that the Australian coach will only be around for a small part of that as he prepares his Brisbane side for the start of the NRL season.
Cunningham expressed frustration at the thinking behind taking the England squad to the Gulf, saying that he cannot fathom how it will improve the national side’s chances of success.
He said: “The whole system is absolutely abysmal, both what has been put forward and what has been accepted by the powers that be.
“We all want a successful World Cup but I can guarantee you 12 days anywhere in the world in January isn’t going to make you win a World Cup in October or November. That’s not going to happen. ‘These 12 days in Dubai are going to change our competition, I believe.’ Those were Wayne Bennett’s words, all because they’re taking 18 players away for two weeks in the middle of January.”
Cunningham also claimed that Bennett does not care about the state of Super League – and added that if he was a coach for one of its clubs, he would be opposed to the Dubai plan himself. Cunningham said: “At the minute it seems like he doesn’t care about our competition, that’s how it feels. I’m absolutely sure this would not be allowed to happen in the NRL.
“They wouldn’t allow this and Wayne, as an NRL coach, certainly wouldn’t allow it to happen. They’re talking about player welfare more and more in Australia but here there’s more games and shorter pre-seasons: it’s a mess and this doesn’t help – and we’re just accepting it.”
Cunningham was speaking at the announcement that St Helens’ Langtree Park stadium will be named the Totally Wicked Stadium for 2017. Totally Wicked, a north-west-based e-cigarette company, has sponsored the club’s north stand since 2013.
