Shaun Wane makes England squad admission

This week attention turns to England’s meeting against France as Shaun Wane prepares for the 2025 World Cup.

As ever a lot was made of the squad picked and more will be made of the side he puts out.

So naturally when he appeared on BBC Five Live, he was asked plenty about squad selection including if he had overlooked players due to age and if those players were playing in the NRL then would those older players have been selected.

In response he said: “Absolutely. There’s players that played in the World Cup that are over 30, which is not normally how I pick my teams, but they were the best players. Chris Hill was a top three front-rower all year and it’s the same again this year.

“We need to get better as a game to make sure there’s more young front-rowers coming through.”

He also said he picked players on form:

“I picked players on form, I’ve tried to pick certain players for certain positions as well. I can’t win though, if I picked 24 then the squad would be too small but picking 40 is too many. It was very much on players in form.

“I’d like more internationals, we’ll whittle the squad down before the French test and then roll into the Tonga tests at the end of the year.

“Everything’s about the next World Cup in ’25 and I’ve picked a squad that I feel can do a really good job but also fire and improve and get better in time so they’re peaking in 2025.”