YORK City Knights Ladies chief Lindsay Anfield has joined pundit Danika Priim in criticising the England Women’s selection policy.

Former England prop Priim told the Forty20 podcast earlier this month that the national side were not selecting York’s Rhiannion Marshall because “her face doesn’t fit”.

Marshall has previously been part of the England side and was hailed by ex-Leeds Rhinos front-rower Priim as “by far the most skilful player in the women’s game when it comes to ball-handling”.

Knights director of rugby Anfield agreed with Priim’s comments, saying: “There’s a lot of girls whose faces don’t fit.

“There’s girls all over who, if you had a more objective view of performance, you’d probably put in there.

“Rhiannion is one of those. She’s got a lot of commitments outside of rugby at the moment, so she’s probably not fit or athletic enough at the moment to play for England, in my opinion.

“But in terms of what Danika said about her being skilful and being a player who really understands rugby league and can read a game, Rhiannion is definitely up there.

“Unfortunately a couple of years ago, she wasn’t in the England squad (anymore) and I think because of that, she’s gone off the boil with training to that same intensity.

“But I wouldn’t disagree with Danika, put it that way.”

Anfield also argued that York co-captain Sinead Peach, who has also previously represented England, is suffering from the same issue of her ‘face not fitting’.

“In my opinion, Sinead is the best hooker in the country, she’s got a really wide skillset,” enthused Anfield.

“The other hookers around are good but they’ve got weaknesses, whereas Sinead is a more well-rounded player.

“She’s another player that unfortunately is out of favour, I guess.”

The current England squad is dominated by players from St Helens, York’s opponents on Sunday (12pm) in their second match of the new Betfred Women’s Super League campaign.

Saints won the treble last year and added another Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup to their growing trophy cabinet earlier this month.

While the Knights’ task appears daunting on paper, York will have home advantage and should have plenty of support too given that the match is the first of a double header at the LNER Community Stadium, with the Men’s side taking on Halifax Panthers later in the afternoon (3pm).

“If there’s one week that we’re going to do a good job on St Helens, it’s this week,” insisted Anfield.

“They might have a bit of hangover from the Challenge Cup final and with a home crowd, given that the men are playing afterwards, hopefully, especially in the second half, there will be a good number of fans in there and they’ll get behind us.

“If we’re going to do it, then this weekend is the one to do it.”

York City Knights Ladies’ clash with St Helens will be livestreamed on The Sportsman YouTube channel.