Wayne, if you ever hold this trophy with an England skipper, I'll disown you. Easy.

Huh? What? Say who? Just like a sneaky bugger, Uncle Wayne Bennett put himself in the mix for the England coaching job and when Uncle Wayne Bennett wants to coach your footy team, he usually gets the job. Bennett takes over from Roosters assistant coach Steve McNamara, McNamara who enjoyed success as England's longest serving coach and registered a series win over the Kiwis.

From a Kiwis perspective, this isn't good, it's also very, very, super-duper weird.

Wayne Bennett will still coach the Brisbane Broncos and will still hand down orders to his assistant coach at the Broncos Stephen Kearney, who is of course the coach of the Kiwis. We now have two coaches from one club coaching two international teams and here's hoping it's Kearney who gets the secret information and not the other way round.

This is good, good for international rugby league to have Bennett coaching an international team as we've just seen England beat the Kiwis, albeit an under-strength Kiwis, Bennett has been appointed to take England one step further. England Rugby League must have been happy with how McNamara had developed England's culture and bringing through many players who have put England on almost level-pegging with Australia and New Zealand, but the appointment of Bennett means they want more.

Bennett will guide England through the upcoming Four Nations and World Cup, with Uncle Wayne recognising that England are a team on the up. It's hard to get a true gauge on England as they did the job against a weakened Kiwis team, although it's hard to ignore the quality they do possess. Bennett has a number of NRL players at his disposal: Burgess bros, Gareth Widdop, Mike Cooper, Josh Hodgson, and fresh Roosters recruit Joe Burgess.

The number of English players in the NRL has increased, which is a sign of growing quality and depth in English rugby league. However, a better sign of this are the players from the Super League, like Ryan Hall, Zak Hardaker, Elliott Whitehead, Matty Smith, Sean O'Loughlin, Leroy Cudjoe, Kallum Watkins, James Roby, Brett Ferres and Jermaine McGillvary. McGillvary for example earned his England debut in the series against the Kiwis last year and was very impressive on the wing, these players are why Bennett has taken on board the extra work load and challenge of the England coaching job.

To say that England now form a competitive triangle with the Kangaroos and Kiwis thanks to the appointment of Bennett could be a stretch, Bennett's the sort of coach though who can take a good team and flip them into a World Cup winning team - just ask a kiwi. More importantly, how exciting is international rugby league going to be over the next few years?
Mal Meninga is now the full-time coach of the Kangaroos, a direct response to the rise of the Kiwis. The Kiwis are the strongest they have ever been and this won't slow down as kiwis continue to make up a greater percentage of the NRL and England, fresh off the back of a series win over the Kiwis now have Wayne Bennett in charge.

An international rugby league uptopia would have less of a gap between New Zealand, Australia, England and the rest of the rugby league-playing world. This is coming though, I can feel it as more and more smaller nations are developing their rugby league programs, especially in Europe and Asia. What will help enhance the growth of international rugby league is a highly competitive top tier and with Wayne Bennett now coaching England, I think that box is now ticked.