Super League: England trio Jack Welsby, Matty Ashton and Mikey Lewis target big 2024 seasons
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Jack Welsby, Matty Ashton and Mikey Lewis all want positive seasons to follow their international efforts
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England's clean sweep of an NRL-star packed Tonga last autumn was a statement series win for northern hemisphere rugby league.
Shaun Wane's side dazzled in the autumn gloom, stunning their visitors with displays of commitment, power and skill to win Tests at St Helens, Huddersfield and Leeds.
Three players at the heart of that success are looking to continue their form into the 2024 Super League season where, with every game televised including 15 games on the BBC, there will be more eyeballs than ever on rugby league.
St Helens dynamic full-back Jack Welsby, pacy Warrington winger Matty Ashton, and mercurial Hull KR half-back Mikey Lewis are all hungry to make progress in the new campaign.
Welsby - the reluctant superstar
Jack Welsby is a name on the lips of many a National Rugby League recruitment guru down in Australia's elite competition, but the St Helens man has committed to Super League having signed a mammoth deal to the end of 2027.
With creativity, poise and vision, the 22-year-old translated his club form to England last autumn with some influential displays, notably as a stand-in captain with George Williams suspended.
However, while his on-field talents merit his promotion as a poster boy for the league and the sport, Welsby is a little more low-key in his lifestyle.
"I'm still the boring old me, who will sit at home and do nothing anyway," Welsby told BBC Radio 5 live.
Highlights: England 22-18 Tonga
"It's great that the Super League is promoting players but if I had my way I'd like to leave it as it is, I like my life and I go under the radar."
That taste of captaincy with England has been followed up by his selection as vice-captain at club level to support skipper Jonny Lomax.
With 27 try assists in 2023, not to mention 12 tries of his own, Welsby will again be a major part of Saints' attack in 2024, and he has been itching to be involved throughout pre-season.
"After a couple of weeks, I was ringing Paul Wellens [head coach] seeing what he wanted me to do and whether I could come in and be a teacher's pet," Welsby added.
"It's been good; I feel like I've had a really good pre-season and feel fit and ready to go."
Ashton - boosted self-belief
Highlights: England 14-4 Tonga - Ashton tries clinch series win
Matty Ashton has had an interesting journey to the international elite, playing amateur rugby league at Rochdale Mayfield and trying his hand in Australia's lower grades before trialling and impressing at third-tier side Swinton Lions.
From there he was plucked by Super League Warrington in 2020 after a 30-try debut campaign with the Lions and his form has continued to rise with 20 tries in 27 games last term earning the 25-year-old an England call.
It was a chance he took willingly, scoring twice in the second Test at Huddersfield to announce his place on the Test stage, and now he hopes it can be the catalyst for another good campaign with the Wire.
"It gives you that self-belief knowing you can do it at the top levels," Ashton told BBC Sport.
"Especially when you've got class team-mates around you, early on in my career I was a bit short of that self-belief, that sense of belonging, and was it luck?
"But after last season and playing internationally, it's given me a lot of confidence in my own game and what I can bring to a team, and I've just got to show that on the pitch this season and keep being a standout.
"I've learned a lot off the top athletes and top experienced players who have done it both sides of the world in the NRL and Super League and it will stand me in good stead in the future."
Lewis - proving international class
International debuts seldom come better than that of Mikey Lewis, who stepped, jinked and scored his way to recognition with a player-of-the-match display in the first Test.
The Hull KR playmaker was dazzling, cutting through Tonga with bewitching footwork and alerting the rugby league world to a talent they have long known about in east Hull.
At 22, Lewis has the potential to enjoy a long career at that level and provide an incentive for other Robins players to make the international grade.
"For Hull KR to have guys representing their country in the club is massive," Lewis told BBC Radio Humberside.
Mikey Lewis' running threat created a try for Toby King and saw him score on his debut in the first Tonga Test
"From where we were to where we are now, there aren't many that have done that.
"If we can get more players on to that international stage more and more, it will be massive for the club."
Lewis' big challenge in 2024 is to make connections with new spine players such as Tyrone May and Peta Hiku, as coach Willie Peters tweaked the personnel over the winter.
"You can get comfortable around the players you know, so it's a good challenge to get to know new players," Lewis added.
"Having that connection between us all is massive."