By STEVE MASCORD

ON the positive side, Test selection is about family. On the negative, sometimes it’s also about proving doubters wrong.

Tyler Dupree, the 23-year-old Salford forward who makes his debut for England against France tomorrow, has a lot of positive to impart – and a little bit of negative.

His single-mother upbringing looms larger than everything else when he considers who he has most to thank for the opportunity to represent his country.

Of mother Jackie, he tells rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads: “She’s always gonna be my mum and everything I do now is for her.

“It’s a big achievement for me and my family – my mum’s proud and my girlfriend’s proud.

“They’re the people who are important to me, who I want to be proud. I think they know how hard I’ve worked. They know how hard its been for me and I think they’re as happy as me. It’s like they’re playing with me.

“(My mum) took me to training all those years ago. When I was in scholarship at Salford she was the one who had to drive me at six o’clock in the morning to get there and she’d be sat in the carpark waiting for me to finish.

“And she’d be doing that three, four times a week. Everything I do now is in appreciation to my mum and I work hard to prove it’s been worth it to her.

“It’s been me and my mum and my sister always. I had a father figure and I don’t disregard him but it’s always been my mum. She’s been mum, she’s been dad. She’s always taken the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“I appreciate everything she does. I still appreciate everything she does, even the little things like washing up after me.”

As for doubters, Dupree doesn’t have to look far. He was let go by Leeds in 2020, told he just wasn’t good enough for the full-time pro game.

“I was in the Championship less than 12 months ago. My target was to get to Super League. I thought if I could get to Super League … I played for England Knights and now hopefully I’ll play for England senior squad, all in the space of 12 months.

“It’s all coming at me at once.

“I stopped trying to impress everyone else and did it for me. I’m not the type of person who bigs myself up but I knew I could make something out of it so I just decided to work hard to prove the prior club that let me go wrong and they were missing out.

“I feel like I’ve done that massively.”

When the phone rang a fortnight ago, he had a feeling it would be good news.

“I got a phone call from an unknown number and I normally don’t answer them. I was one of the only times I did and it was a good decision to answer it. I think that was a fortnight ago, about the 40-man (squad) and I found out on Sunday night I was in the 19-man.”

Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix