England’s Sarginson’s down under ties

England centre Dan Sarginson is set to have his very own fan club in the stands in Dunedin when his team takes on New Zealand in the Four Nations.

The 21-year-old made his Test debut in England’s heart-stopping 16-12 loss to Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.

Despite the result he delivered the backline spark coach Steve McNamara asked of him, setting up one of England’s tries.

Born in Perth to a Kiwi father and English mother, Sarginson could have been making his Test debut for the Kangaroos instead of England.

He spent the first three years of his life living in Australia, where he still has extended family, before moving to England.

“Always growing up when Australia would beat England, my younger brother and I would pretend we go for Australia,” Sarginson said.

“However against Australia I was a proud Englishman out there wearing the jersey.”

Sarginson’s father now lives in Queenstown in New Zealand’s south island along with many relatives.

He said many were making the trip to Dunedin to see him play in their must-win match on Saturday.

“I should see some family I haven’t seen before so it should be pretty good,” the Wigan centre said.

“I think my dad has booked them all tickets, around 20, so I’ll have a little family base over there.”

Sarginson said the England team felt they could get the win necessary to move into the Four Nations final.

He said they had the better of Australia for much of the match but couldn’t close it out.

“For most of the game we felt in control and we took a lot of positives from it,” he said.

“We bullied them a bit and coming out of our own end we were marching them 70 or 80 metres.

“If we can brush up a bit more on our kicks and a few other things I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

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