Captain’s Column: All the lads are proud of Benny and his England call-up

He’s worked so hard to get to where he’s at both on and off the pitch and he fully deserves it.

It’s great for Benny and it’s great for the club and all the lads and coaching staff.

It shows that Wakefield are getting noticed now as a club and Ben’s call-up will only help the club’s image.

The lads can see that hard work and good performances are catching the eyes of national coaches and that’s a good thing in World Cup year, hopefully it will spur them all on.

Ben offers something different to the other wingers in this country, as does Peter Fox on our other wing, they both play very smart stuff.

We’re all really proud of him and we’re sure he can do a good job with England.

I’m hoping to be back playing with him in either the Saints or Leeds match.

I’m back in light training after resting from the operation last week. I’ve got a training partner now in Andy Raleigh, who’s also injured, and I’m in on a morning working on rehab and weights with him, gradually getting my fitness back.

Martin Clawson is helping us get there and hopefully we’ll be stepping our training levels up next week.

I missed out at Catalans Dragons on Saturday but I managed to watch the match.

We managed to put ourselves in a good position to win so it was frustrating that we left with nothing.

There was a heavy penalty count against us which didn’t help and that’s something that we have to improve on, because it didn’t help our energy levels late on in the game and Catalans took advantage of that.

At least we’re getting in those positions against the best teams and hopefully we’ll soon start making those performances count.

Salford visit on Sunday and they’re a side in a transtional period, like we were a few years ago.

It’s not nice for the players when a coach gets the sack, I experienced it when I was at Huddersfield.

But it might get a reaction from them and we’re wary of that this weekend. The results don’t come on the pitch and the players will feel they’re partly to blame and try and put in good performances because of that.

The new owner is coming out with some bold statements, such as increasing the salary cap, but at least it’s getting people talking about the game.