A former member of Everton's Youth Academy at the same time as Wayne Rooney may hold the key to England's hopes of creating history by beating Australia in Sunday's Four Nations match at AAMI Park.
Matty Smith, who made his debut in the England No.7 jersey during last weekend's 32-26 defeat of Samoa, only began playing rugby league at 16 after being cut by the English Premier League club and has now won a Super League premiership and Challenge Cup final with Wigan.
He also played and trained at Goodison Park with the likes of Victor Anichebe, the Nigerian striker who plays for West Bromwich Albion, and Huddersfield Town's James Vaughan.
Now 27, Smith had initially been contracted to Wigan before joining Everton as a 12-year-old striker.
"Rooney was a year older than me but we used to train together on a Saturday morning – our age-group against theirs," Smith said in an interview with The Express.
"I played up front with him a good few times and we scored a lot of goals together. He was an outstanding player even then and he has gone to do great things. It wasn't to be for me at Everton and I got released when I was 15.
"It's obviously tough to make it in football and I think they only kept on seven lads out of about 25."
After being cut, Smith turned to rugby league and has had stints with St Helens and Salford before joining Wigan in 2012.
He was named in the 2014 Super League Dream Team and made an impressive Test debut last Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium to finish with three try assists.
It was the first time he had played with St George Illawarra five-eighth Gareth Widdop and England coach Steve McNamara has the roomed the pair together in a bid to quickly cement their combination.
"Matt has a good kicking game and is more of a controlling half than Gareth," Kangaroos halfback Cooper Cronk said. "He is the guy who does a lot of their set-up plays and set up tries.
"They are a formidable halves combination and they will do what they need to do we will do what we need to do. The game is going to be quite physical. It is going to be the big boppers through the middle of the field, hopefully some expansive play and some good tries scored on the edge."
England have also been bolstered by the return from rugby union of back-rower Joel Tomkins, who played three Tests in the rival code.
Tomkins is the older brother of Warriors fullback Sam Tomkins and the pair scored second-half tries in Brisbane last weekend to help England overcome a formidable Samoa side.
Both teams trained at AAMI Park on Saturday and Cronk confirmed Daly Cherry-Evans would play after overcoming a hip injury that forced him from the field in the first half of last Saturday night's loss.
England captain Sean O'Loughlin has also been passed fit to make his first appearance in the tournament after sustaining a quadriceps injury in the Super League grand final.
