Canterbury’s James Graham, St George Illawarra’s Gareth Widdop, South Sydney’s Sam Burgess and Canberra’s Josh Hodgson have all been given the honour of skippering their clubs in round two of the NRL.

The number and percentage of Englishman captaining NRL clubs is the highest in the 110 seasons of the game being played in Australia and indicates the standing of English players within the game.

Until round 21 last year, when Burgess deputised for Greg Inglis, the most English captains was two – a feat Graham and Widdop had equaled after the latter was appointed St George Illawarra’s 2016 skipper.

According to renowned rugby league historian and statistician David Middleton, the first time two Englishmen had captained Australian premiership teams was in 1974 when Mike Stephenson and Malcolm Reilly skippered Penrith and Manly respectively.

The record held by Graham, Widdop and Burgess was equaled in round one of the NRL when Hodgson was given the role at Canberra in place of the injured Jarrod Croker.

After a season ending knee injury to Inglis, Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire has appointed Burgess, who captained England in last year’s Four Nations, as his new skipper.

Widdop said it was a great honour to be captain and a responsibility he enjoyed with St George Illawarra.

“As a captain you learn each and every year, last year was a big learning curve and you just have to control what you can do, you can’t control anything else. That was just a little thing I learned along the way.

“This year we have got a good leadership group [at the Dragons], which always helps whereas last year we had a lot of injuries and a lot of senior boys weren’t around.

“We’ve been working a lot on leadership, everyone is a leader in their own right and I am a really enjoying leading the boys around again.”

As for the World Cup, Widdop said he was trying not to look too far ahead but wanted to help England avenge their epic last minute defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2013 tournament at Wembley.

“It is still heartbreaking to think about the way we went down. It still hurts so it has always been in the back of my mind and it is a burning desire to have some success,” Widdop said.

“With the World Cup being over here I guess for all the English boys who haven’t been out here it is going to be a good experience and it is just another opportunity for English rugby league with Wayne at the helm now as well.”