YORK City Knights product Tom Lineham will represent his country tomorrow for the first time ever at any level - and he is relishing the chance to see the world and "come back a better player".

The former York RUFC junior and York College student, now a Super League star with Warrington Wolves, is touring Papua New Guinea with England Knights and has been named in the team to take on the Kumuls in Lae tomorrow (3pm local time, 6am UK time).

The flying winger was a late call-up to the squad - ironically as a replacement for another Knights product, Castleford’s Greg Minikin, who withdrew because of injury. And he is relishing his chance.

“It’s a good opportunity to work with different coaches, play with different players," he said.

“This is an opportunity to enjoy, while making sure it’s productive and that I come away a better player than I was before. I’ve just got to take the opportunity.

"I want to come back having enjoyed the experience, have a good time, and come back a better player with more knowledge and come back a better person for the experience of seeing that side of the world.

"I just want to make sure I can take out of it what I can and come away with all the positives.”

Lineham swapped codes from union to league while at York College and, after being snapped up by the Knights, and becoming their then youngest-ever player when he made his debut in 2009 aged 17 years 301 days, he rose rapidly into the Super League arena with Hull and then Warrington, who paid a reported £125,000 for his services in 2015.

Asked about his late call-up to England Knights - effectively the country’s ‘A’ team - the 26-year-old said: “I never played the sport as a kid, so this will be the first time (representing England).

“He (Paul Anderson, England Knights head coach) rang me and said would I be interested. I said definitely.

“I’ve never been to PNG before, never been to Australia actually. So it was a chance to get to see another part of the world while working with new team-mates, make some new friends and work with different coaches.

“Every coach you work with has different ideas and can help you. I want to take that on board and take advantage of it."

Lineham, whose two semi-final tries against Super League Leaders St Helens contributed hugely to the Wire reaching the Grand Final, arrived in PNG yesterday, with club-mates Jack Hughes, Toby King, Harvey Livett, Joe Philbin and Dec Patton.

They made use of Brisbane Broncos’ training facilities in Australia before heading to Lae, where the first battle with the Kumuls will take place on Saturday followed by a second meeting in Port Moresby on November 3.

Lineham said: "Being with the squad in camp for three weeks on the other side of the world, I think it will be pretty intense. You’ve just got to embrace it and enjoy it. There’ll be competition for places, so there should be a healthy atmosphere and I’m looking forward to it.”

On playing in the unique - and "eye-opening" - atmosphere in PNG, he said: "When I went to meetings to fill out all my visas, they were showing pictures of one of the stadiums. The one in Port Moresby is pretty smart, but the other in Lae has cages all around the pitch.

"I’m told it’s very intense, and the fans are desperate to touch you.

"Apparently, with training gear we’ll come off the pitch with no gear on whatsoever. They just love it.

“I’m all for meeting different people and different cultures and seeing a different side of the world. It should be eye-opening and something that I think will be very memorable.”

The tour caps off a fine year for Lineham - albeit one which ended on a downer with their Grand Final defeat, following on from their Challenge Cup final loss to Catalans at Wembley in August.

Lineham reflected: “It’s been a good season, but there was a bit of disappointment at the end because it could have been a really, really good season.

“It was a difficult ending, with it being all or nothing, and to come away from two finals in the year with nothing is difficult.

“But it just makes you more determined and more desperate to win something.”

He added: “We’ve performed really well in semi-finals, but not quite delivered in a final.

“So from a personal perspective, I’m desperate to win a final. I’ve played in four semi-finals and won all four, played in three finals and lost all three.

“It’s a bit of a hoodoo that I’d like to overcome and the aims will be the same next year to win silverware.

“If your team’s up there competing for silverware, then the team’s players start to get recognised and awarded with representative honours. They kind of go hand in hand together.”