Shaun Wane heaps praise on England starlet Dom Young

If the Rugby League World Cup had taken place when originally scheduled, it’s fair to say we probably wouldn’t be watching Dom Young in an England shirt right now.

But as it is, we are watching Dom Young score relentlessly for England and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down, and as a matter of fact, neither does he.

The 21-year-old has taken the 2021 Rugby League World Cup by storm, scoring eight tries in his three games for England. The Newcastle Knights winger looked likely to represent Jamaica despite being born in Wakefield and coming through the ranks with the Huddersfield Giants.

But an early move overseas after making his first-team debut at the age of 17 meant not too many English fans knew an awful lot about the young prodigy.

Here’s an in-depth look at the Newcastle Knights man – https://prostinternational.com2022/11/02/dom-young-englands-next-big-hit/

Skip forward to 2022, Dom Young is the name on every English rugby league fan’s lips and it’s fair to see why England head Coach Shaun Wane is pretty impressed with the youngster.

Speaking ahead of England’s Quarter-Final tie with Papua New Guinea, Wane said: “I’ve been watching him play and I’ve been very impressed.

“I touched base with him through his agent whilst I was in Australia which was tough but when I finally got hold of him and found out his desire to play for England, we was happy.

“You can see from his first year in the NRL that he’s got better and better and improved and he’s now doing for us what he’s done for Newcastle Knights for quite a few months.”

It was a risky move from the youngster to move away from West Yorkshire and go and test himself in a tough competition without any real experience under his belt, but Wane had a lot of admiration for the winger proving his doubters wrong.

“You can’t help but admire what he’s done. He’s backed himself and people might have doubted him over here but he’s gone over and proved himself in a good competition and done exactly what he said he would do.

“No, we’re not surprised at how well he’s done. Admittedly I didn’t know a great deal about him before he moved (to Newcastle Knights) but after knowing he qualified, I’ve kept my eye on him at Newcastle and I’ve been impressed.

Whilst still in competition with Ryan Hall who has not only experience but an unbelievable record on international duty with 40 caps, Young will be hoping to have cemented his place in the England side which is now being backed to have the potential to go all the way despite a lot of doubts before the tournament began.

England face a tough test against PNG this weekend at the D.W. Stadium where they will need players like Young to be on their top form should they progress to the Semi-Final stage of the tournament.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt