Shaun Wane says England’s first Test at St Helens ‘felt like an away game’

The third and final test of Tonga’s historic tour of England takes place tomorrow at Leeds Rhinos’ Headingley home with Shaun Wane’s side looking to secure a clean sweep, something the England boss is intent on particularly given the rivalry established between himself and counterpart Kristian Woolf.

Despite claims from Wane in his post match presser after game two that there was ‘no bad blood on his end’, it’s certainly been a series to watch both on and off the pitch with the coaches engaging in some verbal sparring prior to the player’s getting physical on the pitch.

Woolf’s complaints after the first test regarding the poor surface at his former club St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium coupled with captain Addin Fonua-Blake’s suggestion that Tonga had lost, rather than England winning, seemingly gave Wane his team talk for the second test during which England controlled and dominated their opponents.

It led to an entertaining but cheeky comment from Shaun Wane to the BBC, where he said: “It was just them showing a lot of disrespect to the players so to get those two wins is great and I’d be interested to see what the next excuse is.”

Enter week three of the test series and Wane has continued with his jibes towards Tonga, and specifically Woolf who has hired current Saints boss but former England coach Paul Wellens as part of his coaching set-up. That had led to Wane suggesting that ‘all of St Helens was on Tonga’s side’, and when asked about the English crowd support he made sure to note that once again.

“Well they didn’t in the first test because it felt like an away game,” he explained at the Headingley presser.

“The one at Huddersfield, the crowd wasn’t great but it was bad weather. In the World Cup it was fantastic, the way they got behind us. Playing Greece in Sheffield, a great crowd, it felt like an international game.

“So, we get a good result on Saturday and then the English crowd will get behind us and hopefully it will be a different set up next year when we play Samoa.”

Saturday’s game is of course at Headingley with the stadium set to host it’s first competitive England test since the World Cup in 2000 which has seen ticket sales trend massively upwards with reports of a sell-out amongst the seats, and just standing room only left over.

Speaking to the Sportsman Youtube Channel, Wane confirmed that adding: “Headingley is a fantastic ground, it’s sold out on Saturday.

“I want the fans to see the best of us. I want them to go home proud and I want them to come back next year and support us in three test games against Samoa and get behind the national team which I know we’re all very proud English men and English women, so that’s the important thing to go home and they’re very proud of our efforts.”