Emotional Shaun Wane admits he thought England were going to win semi-final when the game entered golden point

Shaun Wane is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve which is something we have seen throughout his career at Wigan Warriors and now England.

So, it was no surprise to hear himself describe himself as “wounded” by England’s 27-26 semi-final defeat to Samoa in the Rugby League World Cup at the Emirates as he had tears in his eyes.

This feeling was no doubt exacerbated by the fact he admitted he thought his team would win when they entered golden point with all the momentum.

When asked if he thought his side would win after Herbie Farnworth’s dramatic equalising try, he said: “I did. I just thought if we had had composure we have the players and had we had the ball in the right parts of the field, we just lacked composure.

“We didn’t deliver to the same standards and I’m wounded for the players.”

In golden point the game slipped out of their hands through a forward pass which led to Stephen Crichton’s match winning drop goal.

On this, he said: “I think it was a forward pass: poor error. We have to be better, not England standard, Sam won’t accept it, I won’t the players won’t and they’re hurting at the minute.”

It was also suggested to him that Junior Paulo should have been sent off for a tip tackle in the first half of the game, an incident which only yielded a yellow card.

On this Wane said: “The way this World Cup has been refereed has been brilliant, they’ve let the players play. I was glad he didn’t get sent off our defeat was nothing to do with that.”