England set for France Tests as calendar takes shape

France v England Test double-header

Venue: Stade Ernest-Wallon, Toulouse Date: Saturday, 29 June Kick-off: 14:30 BST (women), 17:00 BST (men)

England men's rugby league head coach Shaun Wane could be forgiven for looking enviously at football counterpart Gareth Southgate.

Southgate - currently piloting the national team through the European Championship - is afforded regular warm-up fixtures in the tournament lead-up, and afterwards it will be straight into World Cup qualifying. It can be a relentless schedule, but it is a regular one.

Rugby league remains an enigma to an extent at that level, where strong club games in both northern and southern hemispheres have not always translated to joined-up thinking on a global scale.

Thankfully for Wane, the game is beginning to organise its international calendar too, with the International Board starting to lay down a structure of fixtures.

There will be three matches to enjoy for fans of Wane's team this year, starting with France in Toulouse on Saturday, and two Tests against 2021 World Cup finalists Samoa in the autumn.

Next year, England's men and women will tour Australia, reviving the Ashes series concept.

"To get a real international calendar is so important for the game," Wane told the BBC Radio 5 Live Rugby League podcast during the build-up to Saturday's match.

"The conversations I'm having with players now are more intense when we're picking teams and it's a lot more enjoyable."

The plane to Toulouse will be a busy one given that England are playing a double-header, with Stu Barrow's women's team making the trip.

With professional standards being introduced into the Super League, including payments for players and better facilities being made available, the women's game is on the rise.

England's squad features the usual suspects - Jodie Cunningham, Emily Rudge and Shona Hoyle, for example - but also a crop of uncapped talent.

Teenager Isabel Rowe is an exciting stand-off from Wigan, and St Helens' Katie Mottershead has also caught the eye with her work at hooker.

"We've got a lot of girls that aren't up for selection because of injury and other things and yet we've still got a ridiculous amount of talent in the group," Cunningham said.

"For me as a senior player, one of the things that has changed is the strength in depth we have now that just hasn't been there before. Players who have been in the squad for a long time have to keep raising our standards because those young players are really pushing."

Barrow is at pains to point out this Test is not "an experiment", rather a vital chance to assess some new faces who could emerge and make the difference.

There is expectation that a further Test match will be arranged to coincide with the autumn men's series, as well as mid-season opportunities next year before the women join the men's side on a dual Ashes tour to face Australia.

"They've earned their opportunity to be in there, and it will be a great occasion for them on Saturday," Barrow said.

"We're all about maintaining our standards, our international standards that we've set ourselves internally as a group and they will have to fall into that, guided by the leaders, to hit those standards on Saturday."

England's men signed off for 2023 with a 3-0 series drubbing of Tonga, who had leading NRL lights Addin Fonua-Blake, Tyson Frizell and Felise Kaufusi in their ranks.

The France game will be the first chance for Wane to draw together some of that group for a competitive outing, and will feature a squad drawn exclusively from Super League clubs rather than using any of the southern hemisphere-based contingent.

There have been a few left-field selections. At 27, Castleford centre Sam Wood is no youngster emerging on the scene - but has earned a call-up thanks to his form for Hull KR before injury last season, and in a slowly developing Tigers side this year.

At the other end of the scale is St Helens front-rower George Delaney, who has played just 44 games and only turned 20 in February. However, he's not looked out of place among England forwards such as Alex Walmsley and Matty Lees.

There is also a first selection for Elliot Minchella, Hull KR's influential captain and ball-playing loose-forward, plus Leeds back-rower James McDonnell, Huddersfield prop Oliver Wilson and Wigan's aggressive and defensively sound Brad O'Neill at hooker.

"Success for me will be seeing things I want to see - there are certain things I look for, without giving too much away," Wane added.

"I have England standards, which all the players will know about: I don't like missing opportunities, I like my D [defence] to be intense, and pressured.

"So there are certain non-negotiables which I want to see. I want to see that against France, and if the players can deliver that in that game, it gives them a really good chance to be selected for Samoa."

The incentive is there for Super League's English talent, and the depth will be welcome to Wane for those big games in the next few years.