BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Regardless of the result in the third Ashes Test, England needs a new head coach.
Shaun Wane has had two main challenges in his five-year reign as England coach – winning the 2022 World Cup and winning this year’s Ashes.
Wane has not only failed in both of them, but couldn’t even get England to the World Cup final or to a decider in the Ashes. While his record as national team boss is decent – 18 games, 14 wins and four losses, where it matters in the key matches, England has fallen down.
And like in the last World Cup, the writing was on the wall early.
Heading into that tournament, Wane went with an ageing, experienced squad. There was little X-factor or creativity, and that was exposed in the semi-final against Samoa in London. England hooker Micky McIllorum was forced to play for the full 80 minutes, with four forwards on the bench and no utility, and forward Kallum Watkins was targeted in the centres.
Samoa went on to win in golden point at the Emirates. Despite being seeded on the other side of the World Cup, away from Australia and New Zealand, England couldn’t even make it to the final in their own country, despite avoiding the two traditional heavyweights in the group stages.
Then, coming into this Ashes series, Wane left out the form player of this year’s Super League in Jake Connor. The 61-year-old’s explanation of why he left out Connor, who can play halfback, centre and fullback and is already proven at international level, didn’t pass muster: “It was more about his form than anything else.” Wane also said, when asked what Connor had to do to be part of the 2026 World Cup squad: “Play really well, consistently in every game he plays.”
Which is odd, because Connor has been one of the most consistent players in the comp this year. Hence why he won Man of Steel. Making it even stranger is that in the 48-year history of Man of Steel, only one English winner has failed to make the England national team, and that was Danny Houghton in 2016. Wane went on to say that the award didn’t mean anything to him, and he didn’t even know who was on the Man of Steel panel. Which is also odd, as an employee of the RFL, it wouldn’t be hard to find out.
The England squad selections for the Ashes were heavily criticised because of the players who were picked and who were left out. That the likes of Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba, Connor and others were omitted surprised many. The inclusion of several players out of form, such as George Williams, John Bateman and Jack Welsby, also raised eyebrows. Wane tried to explain this by stating they had “credit in the bank”.
Clearly, the likes of Thompson, Connor et al, didn’t have credit in the bank. This meant the England set-up was robbed of additional creativity, attacking punch and athleticism.
Ahead of the first Ashes Test, England’s 17 for Wembley also came under some fire. The omissions of Morgan Smithies and AJ Brimson, for example, surprised some, as did the selections of Ethan Havard and Batemen for the opener.
It was bizarre when England declined to have a captain’s run at Wembley on Friday, the day before the Saturday game. At the time Wane said it was because all of his team had played at Wembley before. But roughly a third of the England side – Herbie Farnworth, Dom Young, Mike McMeeken, Brimson, Tom Johnstone etc, had never played there before.
Regardless, the first Test went on and England played poorly. They competed for the first 20 minutes then dropped off badly, and a rusty Australia side won easily 26-6. England were “nervous” and “anxious”, according to their coach. They created very little in attack and their slow defence was caught out repeatedly by Reece Walsh.
It was deflating for most of the 60,000 crowd and those watching on the BBC.
Roll on to Liverpool and the second Ashes Test, a must-win for England. Five changes were made with the out of form Welsby dropped for Brimson, Mikey Lewis making way for Harry Smith, Kallum Watkins coming in for Bateman and the bench additions of Smithies and Mikolaj Oledski.
England were under pressure and did their media opportunities at their Worsley hotel. Again, they declined to do a captain’s run the day before the game, doing it on Thursday at Hill Dickinson Stadium instead. There was a closing of the ranks.
England’s performance was much better in the second Test compared with the first, but still the result was the same. The Kangaroos got the victory and the Ashes was lost, again. England had enough good ball to win two games, but could not fire a shot in attack, even when Reece Walsh was sin-binned. Australia made error after error, and were below-par at Hill Dickinson Stadium, no doubt in part because of their opponents’ efforts, but their defence was strong and they pounced on some English mistakes to score two second-half tries.
Bizarrely, Lewis was left on the bench for 69 minutes, and when he did finally come on, it was for Jez Litten, despite England crying out for some creative spark in the halves.
In both Tests England’s lack of tactical nous, of a plan B if A didn’t work, was galling. Yes, in the second Test they got their aggression and intensity right, but they couldn’t adapt to how each game changed. The Aussies did, both when they lost Isaah Yeo to concussion in London and when England had them rattled in the first half in Liverpool.
England were predictable, one-dimensional and their attacks were easily defended. Five drives and a kick. Slow, predictable block plays. Little variety. All the pre-series talk was about grit, passion and the Ashes meaning more to the hosts, but all that talk came to naught. Emotion and pride can only take you so far, and eventually composure, talent and execution under pressure win the day.
Despite being average in both Tests, Australia won both and retained the Ashes without even needing a third game.
Now the series moves to Leeds for the third and final Test. It is a dead rubber and the green and gold squad celebrated by having a few days of R&R in Scotland. Deagh.
Kevin Walters is likely to rotate his roster and let the likes of Mitch Moses, Bradman Best, Jacob Preston, Dylan Edwards and others play at Headingley.
The reality is that the result of the third Test is inconsequential. The Ashes has already been decided. It is pure window dressing.
England could win in Leeds and it won’t matter one iota.
However, there is a World Cup in 12 months’ time and England need to improve vastly. To do that, quite obviously, they need a different coach. One with a more modern approach, one with a better attacking philosophy. One with a more open selection policy, who is not risk-adverse, who can adapt and evolve, who can get the best out of his players, who can get them to perform when it is really needed.
Coaching England is not a full-time job, and nor is coaching NZ, Samoa, Tonga or any international rugby league side. The RFL should be looking at candidates in both Super League and the NRL, either in England or Australia.
Matty Peet, Willie Peters, Paul Rowley, Justin Holbrook, Daryl Powell – there is no shortage of candidates to take the reins.