Andy Ackers' England chance comes after giving up rugby league then taking dad's hint | The Sun

ANDY Ackers knows where he may be if he did not take his dad's advice as a teenager – in trouble.

Certainly nowhere near England's World Cup squad after a sensational season for Salford.

The hooker actually gave up rugby league when he was younger and was not taken on any scholarship programme.

Being your typical teenager, he started to stray from the straight and narrow but had he not listened to his family, he may be way off it.

He also realised working for his dad on a building site was tough love, gave the sport one more go and has not looked back, even though he does ask himself as he trains with Shaun Wane's squad, 'What am I doing here?'

Ackers said: “I packed it in when I was 14 or 15 and started going down the wrong road with a few people I grew up with.

“I said to my dad when I was 17, ‘What am I going to do?’ He replied, ‘Why don’t you give rugby league another go?

“And I wouldn’t like to think where I’d be had I not done that. Quite a few mates at home aren’t in a good way – although I won’t disrespect my friends and I’ve some who are doing well for themselves too.

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“I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for rugby league – I wouldn’t be a builder, that’s definite.

“No disrespect to anyone working on a building site but that is hard work. I think dad purposely put me on that site to prove to me that it isn’t the life for me.

“I was starting at 6am, finishing at 5pm then I’d be straight off to part-time training, have my tea at 9pm and do the same all week.

“But this is no sob story. I’ve worked my socks off to get where I am now.”

Even after giving rugby league a second crack, it has not all been plain sailing for Ackers.

He is still owed money by Toronto Wolfpack after they collapsed – but he had already signed for Salford, where he has established himself as one of England’s best.

But he is not here just for the World Cup ride and even though he has been with them for a week, the 28-year-old already feels a better player.

Ackers, set to make his England bow in tonight's warm-up against Fiji, added: "I can already feel a difference towards my game after just a few training sessions, I feel it's upped three or four notches.

“Everyone’s a 10 out of 10, there are no sevens or sixes. You have to be 10 out of 10 every day.

“I’m waking up each morning thinking, ‘I’m going into an England World Cup camp.’ However, I’m really confident I can add something to this side – what Shaun wants.

“Also, I already feel like Luke Thompson is my kind of guy and I know George Williams from having played alongside him at Wigan academy. It’s a tight, clinical group – a lot like a band of brothers.”

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