Shaun Wane’s pool of England players isn’t big enough for his liking as he prepares for this autumn’s Ashes Test series. England will host three Tests against Australia, with the two sides competing for the rugby league Ashes for the first time since 2003.
It promises to be a momentous occasion for the sport and more than 30,000 people have already registered their interest in tickets for the series with early demand going beyond expectations. As such, there’s hope that Wembley, Everton Stadium and Headingley can be sold out by the time the series arrives.
Since the announcement was made fans have been putting together their early line-ups for the opening Test at the national stadium and Wane could be forgiven for giving it at least a degree thought six months in advance, too, especially following Monday’s get together with his current squad.
His squad will be altered as the season progresses and Wane has a watchlist of players that he will be keeping an eye on. That list isn’t long enough, though, with Wane outlining his desire to have a larger group of players in Super League to pick from.
“Not enough,” Wane said bluntly when asked if he was seeing more Super League players look like England players. “I’d never say yes to that question, it doesn’t work that way in my brain.
“I want better, I want 10 halves, we’ve got three or four really good halves in this competition who I see as England players, but I want 10. Australia have 10 to pick from so I want 10, I want 12.
“That has to be our attitude and fair play to the Super League and the coaches at every Super League club, they’re providing us with great players but it has to be an attitude from us that we need to make it better.”
With an eye to next season and beyond, Wane continued: “I’ve been all around the Yorkshire head coaches and Lancashire head coaches, asking about any young kids coming through what could be up for the World Cup in ’26.
“We’re having those conversations and I don’t want it to be me as just the head coach of England, I want all the head coaches, especially the English head coaches, to be very much part of this winning Ashes series.”
Wane will already be clear about a large chunk of his squad for the visit of the Kangaroos, coming off the back of Test series wins over Tonga and Samoa. And, Wane is pleased with what he has seen so far this season from his England players at club level.
That doesn’t mean the national team coach hasn’t been challenging those players to take the next step in their games, though, with Wane taking the opportunity to hammer home his message on a regular basis.
“I always want more and I always want better,” he added in relation to the performances he has seen from his group of internationals so far. “If all the games played this year would have been unbelievably high quality games, it’s in my nature to want more. I’m happy with the standard but I’ll never be satisfied.
“There’s people playing really well, Morgan Knowles of St Helens, his form has been fantastic, but there’s areas of his game that still need to be better for us to win a Test match at Wembley.
“The players will probably get sick of hearing that this year but I look forward to Everton’s ground and Headingley and I know it’s going to be really, really tough and that’s why my demands on the players weekly are very, very high and the players understand that. Basically I’m never happy.
“Regarding my message to the players it’s been very simple. You need to look like an England player. [For example] Mikey Lewis for Hull KR or Harry Newman for Leeds, having a good game for your team is not good enough, you must be better and you have to look like an England player. There’s lots of technical details behind that but rest assured the players 100 per cent understand what’s required.”
📈 And we’re continuing to climb!
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