Jamie Peacock warns Super League over England cap for Gareth Widdop

Jamie Peacock has warned that the presence of Gareth Widdop, a fellow Yorkshireman whose peculiar accent now owes as much to Neighbours as Emmerdale, as one of three Australia-based players in the England team he will lead against France morrow night could spell trouble for the Super League. Widdop, who has come through the Melbourne Storm system since emigrating with his family seven years ago at the age of 14, will be joined in England's starting line-up by Gareth Ellis and Sam Burgess, who were established internationals when they signed for Wests Tigers and South Sydney respectively. Peacock has no doubts that many more will follow. "Circumstances have changed, haven't they?" said the England captain, who has received offers from Canberra, Canterbury, Penrith and Souths at various stages of his career, but was not willing to forsake the chance of moving from Bradford to Leeds, the club he supported as a boy. "The pound is much weaker now against the Aussie dollar. Their salary cap is going up while ours stays the same. And everyone can see how much Gaz [Ellis] and Sam are enjoying it. "It's something the game needs to watch out for over here, especially in a couple of years' time when everyone is expecting their salary cap to go up a lot on the back of a new TV deal. You're definitely going to see more players go out there and it could be detrimental to the strength of Super League – if not necessarily to the England team." Widdop's selection at full-back to face France at the Leigh Sports Village underlines the potential benefits for the new England coach, Steve McNamara, in having a pool of players in the National Rugby League. He has made two senior appearances for the Storm, but McNamara rates him at least the equal of any British-based full-back, a harsh but accurate reflection of the gulf in class between the NRL and the Super League. "Just watching him in training this week, you can tell he's going to be good," said Peacock, who made it his business to welcome a youngster who grew up watching him play for Bradford from the Odsal terraces. "He looks very good positionally, and he's obviously an athlete." Widdop has benefited from a close association with Billy Slater, Melbourne and Australia's first-choice full-back and one of the highest-profile sportsmen in his homeland. The diamond earrings Widdop wears add to the impression of someone with more in common with a young Premier League footballer than a sturdy Super League prop like Peacock. By selecting him so early, McNamara has removed any doubts that Widdop might prefer to represent his adopted country – and play in the State of Origin series – after he receives his Australian passport this year. Instead he has been earmarked to play a crucial role in the Four Nations at the end of this season, and onwards to the 2013 World Cup. "I feel I'm ready," said Widdop, who does not expect to be as nervous ahead of his Test debut as he was when running out for Melbourne for the first time, against the New Zealand Warriors in April. "I know I've only played a small number of first-grade games but the lower grades in Australia are still very strong." He will almost certainly have faced stronger NRL reserve teams than the injury-hit line-up France will field in Leigh. Bobbie Goulding's team will do well to avoid an even heavier defeat than the drubbings they have suffered in Paris and Toulouse in the last two years.