Kane Linnett guaranteed a special place for himself in Scottish rugby league history and he is hoping the team can achieve something even more memorable against New Zealand tonight but even if not the strong running centre believes they have made significant strides in the course of the Four Nations tournament.
A pain-killing injection has been required to deal with an ankle injury but the scorer of the national team’s first ever try against England at Coventry last Saturday evening is determined to play in the match which will round off their involvement.
“I want to give it one more go because we don’t go back into training until January and I’m really looking forward to playing at Workington. I really enjoyed it there the last time,” said the 27-year-old.
“There is only one more game left of the year and it is a long way to come over here for me to play so hopefully I can go out on a positive note and put a solid performance in.”
That previous experience of playing in the west Cumbrian town was during the 2013 World Cup when Scotland beat Tonga and drew with Italy, before their defeat of the USA in Salford took them into a quarter-final meeting with New Zealand.
This time around their campaign was always, barring a succession of sporting miracles, going to end with a meeting with the Kiwis whom Linnett knows well playing with and against them for North Queensland Cowboys in Australia’s National Rugby League.
“They’re obviously a big bunch of boys,” he said.
“I think my clubmate Jason (Taumalolo) is getting rested which will be good for us and Sonny Bill (Williams) won’t be there this time while I think playing at Workington can help us, but they are still pretty much the same, pretty strong all over the park.
“We can definitely cause them a few troubles, though. Our halves have a good kicking game and we’re going to need that and we’re going to have to complete our sets of six because it’s going to be pretty wet.”
While the camaraderie within the squad has been similar to that during the World Cup there were never going to be the same highs because there was little or no chance of winning matches, such is the nature of this competition. Linnett reckons things are continuing to move in the right direction as they look towards next year’s World Cup in Australia.
“We’ve got a good bunch of boys here so it’s similar, but we’ve lost a couple of games and obviously we’re a bit down about that because we’d love to win one,” he said.
“It is definitely building, though. There’s a really good spirit and there’s a bit more depth with more coming on board and the likes of Peter Wallace and Keith Galloway to come back in so hopefully the boys will stay together and we should be really strong next year.”
On a personal basis getting the try which provided the first reward for Scotland’s dominance of the early exchanges against England, going on to lead 8-0 after Matty Russell got their second touchdown and holding the lead until four minutes from the interval, offered some consolation in defeat, but for Linnett the real satisfaction clearly comes from representing Scotland means to some of those closest to him.
“It was great to get that score and playing against England was something we won’t forget with a lot of the guys playing against their mates,” he said.
“But I just love playing for Scotland and I look forward to it at the end of the year.
“My mum was born in Glasgow and she moved over to Australia when she was around eight-years-old, so I have Scottish relatives back home in Australia who all get up early to watch me play for Scotland and I still have family in Scotland and they all watch me, too. I’ve had a chance to catch up with a few aunties and uncles in Scotland since I’ve been over and it’s been good to see them.”
Along with Matty Russell, Dave Scott, Danny Brough, Luke Douglas, Danny Addy, Ben Hellewell, Ben Kavanagh, Brett Phillips and Adam Walker, Linnett is one of 10 players in the 19 man Scotland squad who were involved in the World Cup quarter-final against the Kiwis while an 11th, Dale Ferguson, only missed that match through suspension.
However the extent to which they remain Scottish rugby’s poor relations is perhaps best demonstrated through the landmark being achieved by captain Danny Brough.
On a weekend that will see Ross Ford win his 100th Scotland cap in the 15-a-side version of the sport, he will match Andrew Henderson’s Scottish appearance record this weekend having made his Test debut in the same year as Ford, 2004. Brough has played the vast majority of Scotland’s matches in the interim, yet this will be just his 23rd cap.
This competition’s principal benefit was, then, always going to be gaining valuable experience ahead of next year’s World Cup, but their improvement between their first and second matches has already influenced proceedings since Australia now know that as long as they do not lose to England by more than 12 points they are guaranteed a place in the final.
Defending Four Nations champions New Zealand will meanwhile be sure of their place in the final if they rack up a 42 point winning margin tonight.
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