For those Reds able to tolerate the international game -- there are, Rant is told, a few -- Wayne Rooney's England dbut may still be remembered as the sparkling entrance of a 17-year-old wunderkind. Nearly a decade on from that substitute appearance against Australia at Upton Park, Rooney has become a senior member of Roy Hodgson's dysfunctional side. Not the star of the international scene many had hoped, but a player who has found a new maturity -- at least according to the Croxteth-born striker. Indeed, Rooney now hopes to emulate a latter-day Manchester United hero, Eric Cantona, and become an inspiration to a new generation. It is a role for which Rooney has long seemed unsuited, but one which may define the second half of his career. Now a senior player for club and country, Rooney has appeared 370 times for United and earned 76 England caps. It eclipses Cantona's tally both for the Reds and at international level. In that the former Evertonian has become an experienced campaigner; a player far removed from the scruffy youth fresh off the Liverpool streets who broke onto the world scene. But seasoning is where the comparison ends; Rooney's brilliance has too often been tempered by frequent injuries and inconsistencies in a career that has hit many heights, but perhaps never of the world's lite. Nor, crucially, has Rooney become the role model Cantona would eventually become at Old Trafford, inspiring the 'Class of 92? to a generation of unprecedented silverware, long