England tied up their series victory over Tonga today with a third and final win to record the clean sweep as they ran out 26-4 winners at Headingley courtesy of tries from Ben Currie, Matty Ashton, Elliott Whitehead and local lad Harry Newman.
Newman clearly enjoyed playing at his home stadium with the centre recording an impressive offload assist for Ashton’s try as well as being heavily involved in Currie’s opener too. As for Whitehead he notched a try on his final England appearance and was perhaps unlucky not to get another, the video referee ruling against him.
Post game talk from Shaun Wane revealed the pride that he had in his men and also saw him beam about what he believes to be “the best sport in the world”, so the question would be ‘when do we get to see more international rugby league?’
For England that’s scheduled to come this time next year when Samoa become the second Pacific Island nation to tour England granting the hosts a chance to avenge the World Cup semi-final defeat.
Shaun Wane also suggested that there could be a mid-season international but stated that all eyes were now firmly on Samoa, however there could be a spanner in that plan with Tongan coach Kristian Woolf offering a worrying warning over the prospects of the England and Samoa series in 2024.
Speaking after his side’s defeat at Headingley, Woolf was asked what advice he’d learned from the tour in England and what advice could be handed to Samoa ahead of their travels, and the answer Woolf gave will worry England fans.
“I’m not sure if they are (playing England),” he answered.
“As I said, we’ve had discussions about playing them over there as well. I don’t think anyone should count that (Samoa’s tour of England) as a given.”
It would be a huge blow for England to have the tour collapse on them given the success of this current test series. With Samoa having been the last side to beat Shaun Wane’s England then a series against them would be the perfect prep for the potential Ashes tour in 2025.
Despite Woolf’s claims it was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning that international officials are “hopeful” that Samoa tour England, with the Tongans potentially set to be included in a four team Pacific Championship in 2024.
The Herald reported: “Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and potentially Fiji will make up the Pacific Championships next year, with international officials hopeful Samoa tour England, and Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Lebanon and potentially France round out the tier-two tournament.”
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