PARRAMATTA EELS-bound Paige Travis only has one thing on her mind this week – doing a job for England at the highest level of the game.
When the second-rower takes to the field against the Australian Jillaroos she will get her first real taste of what she can expect when, just a matter of weeks later, she heads to the other side of the world to begin her time as an NRLW player.
If both get selected to play, Travis will herself be on the opposite side to new team-mate Mahalia Murphy, while also going up against the players she will soon find herself facing on a weekly basis.
But the 25-year-old is not looking at the game as any sort of preparation for the next stage of her career.
“This is probably the biggest game of everyone’s career so far so in a way it is daunting, but in another way it’s not,” Travis told League Express.
“We believe in ourselves as a team and as individuals and confidence is good. Why shouldn’t it be? We’ve put the hard work in.
“Now is about us living up to what we want to achieve and doing our jobs.
“The girls have been asking for games like this for a long time. As much as Wales and France give us a good game, we haven’t been tested like this yet.
“We don’t want to be playing in the big, one-sided scores, we want games like this, which will really set us up for later in the year and then the World Cup (in 2026).
“Yes, it will also give me an idea of what to expect in my first season in the NRLW but as lovely as that might sound for me, it’s just not something that is entering my head just yet.
“The focus for me is England and that’s all I’m thinking about.
“Once that job is done I can focus on the NRLW and what I will be up against when I head over there in April.
“It is a whirlwind few months for me now, but I’ve compartmentalised things so that it’s all about Vegas first and then Parramatta.
“All matters to me now is this England team and testing myself against Australia.”