England will field a team of the best unsigned talent in the game at the Rugby League Commonwealth Championships next month. The RFL have selected a squad – to be announced next week –comprising the pick of the community game with players from amateur clubs all across the heartlands.

Among the squad, which will be announced next week, is 19-year-old half-back Joe Prior, an experienced England Lions international who plays with Wigan St Patricks and is on the Wigan Warriors Education Academy programme.

The majority of the players in the squad have been involved in the Super League academies, however a number of others have also proved that Rugby League is a sport for late developers.

“Having played a number of games last year and watched a considerable number of games coach Kelvin Locket selected an initial squad of 25 players in April,” explained team logistics manager Stuart Prior. “But the initial squad was depleted even before they’d met! A couple of players had signed professional papers, after successful trial periods, and a few major injuries forced a couple of lads out of the squad.”

England trained twice in May – at Leigh East and at Wigan St Patricks – introducing five new players to the squad for the second session.

“We had a robust session at Wigan - to say the least the day was tough! After that the coaching staff announced their final 15 for the journey north. There’s a good blend with many lads having their own personal accolades. A number of the players have played representative rugby together as part of the counties programme. Seven of the squad played against the German Under-20s in Heidelberg last year. All but one of the lads has played in their club’s first team in the National Conference League, the highest community competition in the country. So the squad has the potential to do very well in the competition. There is some individual brilliance in the team, and all the lads are looking forward to the opportunity to test themselves on the international stage.”

In the RLCC2014 tournament at Cumbernauld’s Broadwood Stadium in North Lanarkshire, which is part of the Homecoming Scotland festival of events, England are last in action against Canada at 2.15pm on Friday 27 June before facing Papua New Guinea at 3.55pm and finishing their group games against South Africa at 5.35pm. They will return the next day for the play-offs and semi-finals stage. Entry on both days is FREE.