Bennett takes blame for Dubai drama

Wayne Bennett says it his fault for the breakdown in communication that led to the cancellation of the Dubai pre-season for the England team.

The controversial camp was scrapped late last year after opposition from Super League clubs.
“It was my fault, I should have communicated better,” the England coach said today.

“I take responsibility for that.”

Bennett described the scrapping of the Dubai training camp before the start of the season as a “minor setback”.

“I was obviously disappointed,” he said.

“It’s a minor setback, it would have been nice if we could have done it but we couldn’t do it so we just have to move on.

Bennett said he wasn’t surprised by the attitude of the Super League clubs who opposed the camp.

“It’s always tough on clubs. In a competition like in Australia where they have State of origin it has a huge impact on us over there, particularly the amount of players that can be selected from one club.

“Some of the coaches here thought there might have been a bit of grief coming there way.”

England will play Samoa on May 6 in Sydney.

Bennett plans to use NRL-based players for the Test with at least 12 or 13 Super-League based players.

He confirmed that he would not select more than three England players from each Super club for the match.

“I’m happy with that, we can make that work,” he said.

“The Samoa Test is important to us, we need to play some more matches together.”