Canberra Raiders recruit Josh Hodgson may be on the cusp of his first English jersey, but he hopes he doesn't play in his homeland again and wants to finish his career in the NRL.
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A shock call-up to England's Four Nations team, Hodgson admitted the NRL success of Sam Burgess, James Graham and Gareth Widdop has raised the expectations for Englishmen in the NRL.
Selection in England's squad is a timely confidence boost, and he will vie for minutes at hooker with the Super League's recently-crowned Man of Steel Daryl Clark.
Hodgson, 24, had initially planned to arrive in Canberra early to get a full pre-season under his belt after signing a two-year deal with the Raiders.
His signing was greeted with optimism by success-starved Raiders fans, and the former Hull KR skipper wants to emulate the successful move of his countrymen.
"People's expectations are definitely a bit higher now than if no one [England players] had gone over to the NRL," he said.
"It's a good thing to have, it sets the bar for you and I know it's not going to be easy getting a place in the Canberra team, I'll be working as hard as I can to do that.
"I want to make a success of myself here, and not go back to England for the rest of my career.
"It [selection] changes my plans a bit, my partner will get to Canberra before me but I'll chat to Ricky [Stuart, Raiders coach] and see when he wants me in.
"As soon as we're finished [with England], I'll be champing at the bit to get my pre-season started."
England trained in Brisbane on Sunday before its Four Nations opener against Samoa on Saturday, part of a double header with the Australia-New Zealand clash.
After captaining the second-tier England Knights last year, Hodgson has his fingers crossed he will make his make his international debut at Suncorp Stadium.
Hodgson was called into the squad after first choice dummy halves James Roby and Michael McIlorum withdrew through injury.
"A couple of people pulled out, but I like to think I still earned my place in the squad through my performances," Hodgson said.
"There's two hookers and I don't know whether Steve [McNamara, England coach] is going to go with the one or the two.
"To get my first feel of international football would be awesome, I'll have a chat to a few of the guys who have played NRL and chat about what life's like here."
Australia's title defence has been rocked by the withdrawal of several big name players, increasing England and New Zealand's hopes of causing an upset.
"I'm not going to speculate on if we're going to win, or what have you," Hodgson said.
"We can't get distracted by those things, but there's no reason we can't."
