By STEVE MASCORD
CMON! That’s a fire alarm!”
James “Jammer” Graham is glaring at his team-mates as they sit scattered around the mezzanine level at the Rendezvous Hotel at windswept Scarborough Beach in Perth.
The cream of England’s professional rugby league players has been cooped up here for a week, having arrived from Britain and several points east.
There’ve been training sessions at the West Australian Institute Of Sport, many meetings and lots of talk about what’s for dinner.
Although a coastal idyll sounds nice, Scarborough Beach is being remodelled, many local shops are boarded up and the afternoon Freemantle Doctor wind is so strong it made the writer’s suitcase levitate like Mary Poppins’ umbrella.
These are the sort of weeks – with players living in each other’s pockets – when the foundations for World Cup victories are built – or at least the construction is attempted.
You ask stand-off Gareth Widdop what he thinks of Graham joining him at St George Illawarra next year and he says: “I don’t like him. I don’t want him to come!
“Nah … it will be good working with him. I’m not sure if I can handle him every day, like, but he’ll be a great addition to the club, that’s for sure, especially on the leadership side of things.”
Being captain of a team involving Graham, though? Widdop’s already having some fun with that.
“I said ‘I can’t wait to tell you what to do now, boss you around’! We’re roomies now so I’ve made him my tea maker every night. “
Inevitably, there are thoughts about Friday’s opener against Australia at AAMI Park. Last time at the same venue, a disallowed Ryan Hall try was the difference.
“It came down to one single decision, didn’t it?” the giant Leeds winger says, propped up on a lounge as the fire alarm wails.
“It gives us confidence they’re not unbeatable. They were in ascendancy for a bit of the game but so were we. That’s what the game’s about: trying to be in ascendancy for as long as possible.”
And then there was the last clash between the countries at any venue, a fiery 36-18 defeat for England at London’s Olympic Stadium.
“We weren’t very good,” laments prop Sam Burgess. “We turned the ball over, missed a few opportunities, we gave them too much space which you just can’t do against the Aussies
“Too many penalties. Against a team with the big names we all know – Smith, Cronk, Billy’s back in for this tournament, you can’t do it.
“We showed some good signs there but not enough to win a World Cup.”
Man of Steel Luke Gale is just happy to be away from the disappointment of Castleford’s grand final defeat. “It’s kind of a good tonic to jump on the plane and get away with the England boys,” he says. ”
But it might surprise you to know the players look forward to the same thing about World Cups that we do. When they look ahead to the next seven weeks, it’s camaraderie that looms large.
“It’s definitely exciting for me,” says back rower Elliott Whitehead. “Living in Australia, I don’t get to see my friends and that a lot. A lot of my friends are playing for France, too, because I played in Catalans. It will be good to see some old faces and catch up with them.
“At the end of the day I have to do my job on weekends so I’ll be focusing on that mainly.
“We keep it interesting. We go out for dinner and we ry to do some activities together so we’re not sat in the hotel all the time.
“But we’ve got a great bunch of guys here and there’s some good characters so even if we’re sat around we’re having laughs with Scott Taylor and Jammer and that. They bring the entertainment when we’re sat around.”
The fire alarm has stopped now. Candles in the say spa, apparently.
Already showing composure under pressure, these boys.
