Chris Heighington will be back on the field for his nation this Saturday in what will be his most important international appearance yet when England take on Australia in the Rugby League World Cup final in Brisbane.
The 34-year-old veteran forward has been recalled into the English side after missing the last two matches, and will relish the moment he gets to challenge the defending champions for the prestigious 2017 title.
“I'm really excited," said Heighington.
“Unfortunately we lost Josh Hodgson who is a big part of the team, so I'm coming onto the bench which is really good.
“I'm getting a bit nervous because it's a big occasion, but I’m going to grab the opportunity."
Averaging 33 minutes in each of his three World Cup games, Heighington will again look to take on a leadership role from the bench.
“I'll just be playing that senior role within the team,” he said.
“When I go on and a few of the senior guys come off, I just need to hold the middle and make sure we’re going as good as we did when we started the game.”
England will be desperate to get one back against the Aussies this time round after they lost to them in their first match of the tournament over a month ago.
“It was only 10-4 75 minutes in and then they scored a try off one of our kicks because we were trying to chase points, so you can take a bit of confidence out of that," Heighington said.
“It was anyone’s game with 79 minutes gone… we looked at a whole heap of video and we’ve just got to go out and play for the whole 80 minutes and hopefully wrap it up.”
Win or lose come Saturday, the experienced forward admits his involvement in the World Cup has been nothing short of amazing and something he’ll forever remember.
“It has been nearly two months with the team and we’ve been all over Australia,” he said.
“We have gone to Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, New Zealand and now back to Brisbane... so there’s been a lot of travel and there’s has been a lot of time to hang out with the guys and get to really know them.”
