Shaun Wane claims praise of his player’s manners and conduct makes him “as proud as winning test matches”

Shaun Wane has spoken ahead of the third and final test about the pride he holds for his team and the way in which they’ve conducted themselves during this historic test series, England’s head coach going as far as to say that compliments of his player’s manners and behaviour make him “as proud as winning test matches”.

Wane was speaking with the BBC just prior to kick-off at Headingley with England set to have the chance to tie up the series 3-0 and he spoke on a number of topics, but beamed with pride over the conduct of his players.

Asked what he had learned through the camp, he responded: “Well, the hotel where we’re staying in Manchester, the messages I’ve seen, the coach driver, the team bus driver who drives us here, the messages we’ve received off everyone about the manners of our players and the respect they have shown for my players makes me nearly as proud as winning these test matches.

“So it’s not just during the game. I want people to know that we’re a proud nation, we’ve got respect, we look after each other and that means as much to me as anything.”

The England coach had made three changes to his side today with Toby King, Mikey Lewis and Victor Radley all dropping out for Ben Currie, George Williams and Robbie Mulhern. However it was only Lewis that was left out based on selection but Wane was keen to highlight how important he had been during the first two test.

“He’s a really really good player is Mikey,” Wane explained, continuing: “He’s young, he’s won us two tests but George is George and he’s world class, so is Mikey, but George is my captain and I said all along he was going to play.”

Wane also explained why he had been so insistent on England pushing for the 3-0 clean sweep, something which has been a focus whenever he’s addressed the media ever since securing the series victory last week at the John Smith’s Stadium.

He said: “It depends on your want and your why. Hopefully our want and our need for that 3-0 today is more important than their need for 2-1.

“You look at Elliott who is playing his last game so we’ve got a load of ‘whys’, we’ve spoken about that before the game and now it has just to mean more to us, simple as that.”