Teenage sensation Theo Fages is delighted to be in France’s provisional World Cup squad – but insists he will be keeping his feet firmly grounded at Salford City Reds.
Fages, 18, moved to England from his home country aged 15 to pursue his Super League dream and this year has established himself in the Reds’ first team.
After receiving his first ever international call-up to join 39 of his compatriots for a pre-World Cup training camp, he is raring to meet up with them.
“It’s good. I’m glad,” he told MM. “I’m looking forward to the first training camp and to see if I can get the chance to go to the World Cup.
“It was a goal for me – not my main goal, but I just thought if I could keep playing first team and play well then I would have a chance so I’m glad.
“I don’t think it puts more pressure on me though – if I keep playing well I’ll have a bigger chance to be in the squad so not really. I just think about playing well for Salford and we’ll see for France.”
After starring at Magic Weekend when Salford put Widnes Vikings to the sword, the Frenchman and his Red Devils team mates endured a difficult two weeks, losing heavily to Warrington Wolves and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
But despite a tough season – with the Reds now propping up the Super League table after their points deduction – Fages insists he is enjoying his first year of senior action.
“It’s a tough season for us,” he admitted. “We all knew it was going to be hard before the season started and when we don’t play well it’s frustrating.
“We know we can do better, like we did against Widnes so we need to get back to playing like that.
“From a personal point of view, this year has been good. I’m only 18 and I’m playing first team so that’s the main thing for me.
“I’m getting some experience and I try to play. If I play well then we will play well as a team so I enjoy it.”
And after enjoying a weekend without a fixture last weekend due to England facing the Exiles on Friday night, Fages now hopes Brian Noble’s side will return to action in good form.
“We’re going to train but we didn’t get a chance to fix what went wrong against Wakefield at the weekend,” he added. “Hopefully next week we can play better and fix what we did wrong.”
Image courtesy of Boots ‘n’ All via Sky Sports Video, with thanks.
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