Dolphins recruit Morgan Knowles has slammed suggestions that England’s Super League competition was an inferior product of the NRL as he issued a warning to the Brisbane Broncos ahead of the World Club Challenge.
Arriving in Redcliffe to reunite with his former St Helens coach Kristian Woolf, Knowles admits he landed with a point to prove as he had long felt that Super League was being overlooked abroad.
Knowles won three premierships in a row under Woolf, with the 29-year-old lock managing 246 caps before embarking on a “new challenge”. There is no guarantee he will make the Dolphins’ starting line-up – Tom Gilbert, Max Plath, Thomas Flegler and Daniel Saifiti are set to return from early-season injuries.
Morgan Knowles pictured during Dolphins training.Credit: Dolphins Media
England greats Sam Burgess and James Graham became bona fide NRL stars after relocating to Australia, while Morgan Smithies became a mainstay in the Canberra Raiders forwards.
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While he hoped to achieve “even a quarter” of what those men did, Knowles was determined to eradicate the belief that Super League had failed to produce the same caliber of talent – insinuations that only intensified after the Kangaroos produced a 3-0 White Ashes late last year.
But the “proud Cumbrian” issued a warning to the Broncos ahead of their clash with Hull Kingston Rovers on February 20, believing the latter have the ability to shock the NRL champions as he and St Helens did against the Penrith Panthers in 2023.
“Hull KR, if they play at their best, they’ve got a hot chance. Super League is pretty beat up and that’s definitely boring us English boys over there,” Knowles said.
“It was the same in ’23, when I came in with St Helens, everyone asked me why I was in Australia and when I said we were playing Penrith they would laugh and say it was going to be a cricket score. But we had a quiet confidence.”
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