England rugby league boss Steve McNamara believes England’s leading international sporting teams can all benefit more by sharing their experiences of elite competition.
McNamara and his England squad are based at St. George’s Park for one of four training camps this month, preparing for their three-match test series against New Zealand.
And the head coach says both he and his players can benefit from talking to their respective national team counterparts with numerous different teams having used the facilities on offer in Burton.
"I think something we can do better as governing bodies and national teams in general is to help each other," he said.
England's rugby league squad will spend four training camps at SGP ahead of their New Zealand series
"If we can start sharing experiences and the issues and problems that we all face, and we all have to deal with, whether it’s the England rugby league side, England rugby union team or England senior football team, it will benefit everyone.
"So I just think as international sides we could integrate with each other a little more and hopefully make all of us successful, which is what every sporting fan wants."
After watching the England team go out the Rugby Union World Cup early this Autumn, McNamara says there is no added pressure on his charges as they prepare for the threat of New Zealand.
"Anybody that’s involved in international sport knows that there is huge pressure full stop," he added.
"When you’re part of an international team representing England, it’s part of the territory that goes with it. It’s a huge honour representing and coaching your country in elite sport but there’s big expectation that goes with that for everyone involved. Dealing with that expectation is about getting your preparation right going forward."
McNamara also revealed that St. George’s Park has been the perfect environment to prepare as his team got together at the National Football Centre for the first time this week, and he says the team have been working hard at the facility.
He explained: "There’s no doubt that St. George’s Park has really grown as a facility and there’s a real heartbeat here.
The squad took advantage of the Outdoor Leadership Centre at St. George's Park
"The atmosphere and feel around the place is superb, and combined with the facilities we’ve got at our disposal, it’s a one stop shop for everything. Especially for some of the additions we wanted to add to our programme over the next few weeks, it was the perfect timing to choose this place in the build up to the series."
The former Bradford, Wakefield Trinity and Huddersfield player also believes the opportunity to integrate with other sporting organisations and famous faces at St. George’s Park can help his staff to learn from others.
"It’s about sharing best practice, and this place epitomises that," he said.
"Our players and staff will benefit from bumping into other people and meeting and discussing their experiences, whether you’re on the coaching staff or medical and sports science staff, you’ll benefit from talking to those people.
"So it’s about bettering yourself and progressing both as an individual and team all the time. We are trying to provide for the players the very best opportunity for them to prepare well - which in turn will give us the best chance of being successful in tournaments."
McNamara was also keen to highlight the benefit of St. George’s Park’s Outdoor Leadership Centre, where his team took on some team building exercises earlier in the week.
"It was really good," he revealed.
"The core of our group has been together for a long time as a squad so they are fairly close knit. But we’ve added some fresh faces this year from our junior programme who are new to the group so I think it was important in the first few days of this camp to bond the group together a bit.
"They need to be comfortable around each other and feel connected to help build that trust on the pitch, so I think the (Outdoor Leadership) centre and the exercises we were able to do, were a great addition to the things we were doing in our first couple of days training so it’s certainly something I would look to do again."
