Raiders backrower Hudson Young has been rewarded for his stellar second half of the season with selection in the Kangaroos’ extended squad.
Coach Mal Meninga has been informing players whose NRL seasons have finished that they’ve been selected in Australia’s train-on-squad ahead of the World Cup.
That squad will cut to a 24 players as the Kangaroos look to retain the World Cup they won in 2017, with the tournament to kick off in England on October 15.
“I was pretty surprised to be included in that extended squad, it’s a very big thing for myself and my family,” Young told the Fox League Podcast.
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“I still see Australia as the pinnacle over Origin, to play and represent your country is the greatest honour ever.
“Obviously to play for the Blues is a massive achievement but I still see it as the trial to play for Australia. I just think representing your country is the greatest thing you could ever do for your family and yourself.”
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Young spent some time in NSW Cup earlier this year before bursting into career-best form for in the second half of the season for Canberra.
The 24-year-old scored 10 tries from Round 15 onwards and recorded a stunning 43 tackle breaks in that same time frame.
Young believes he enjoyed the best season of his budding career thanks to a staffing change at the Raiders over the summer.
“It just comes down to how you prepare. I felt like I had a really good off-season which rolled into a really good pre-season,” he said.
“We had new trainers this year in Jeremy Hickman and Blake Duncan and they had new philosophies and different ways to train and I feel like it really helped my style of game.
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“I’m not a massive long-distance runner, my game is around speed and that sort of stuff, so I feel like it helped my game.
“I probably took my foot off the gas a little bit when I hurt my toe in Round 1, I carried that for two weeks then got an injection and Sticky said to have the game off against Melbourne and I went back to Cup for a game against the Bears.
“Luckily enough Elliott Whitehead copped a knock at training and I was able to play the following week. It was the worst one I’ve ever seen, he had four teeth hanging out of his head and still wanted to play.”
Joseph Suaalii, Ben Hunt, Josh Addo-Carr, Cameron Munster, Harry Grant, Angus Crichton, Lindsay Collins, Jake Trbojevic, Daly Cherry-Evans, Pat Carrigan and Payne Haas have all reportedly been included in the Kangaroos’ extended squad.
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