Shaun Wane rubbishes suggestion England have had ‘favouritism’ in the World Cup

England head coach Shaun Wane has rubbished claims that the host nation have been treated any differently to their competitors during this World Cup.

Scrutiny has been cast by some corners due to perceived England advantages during the tournament, including longer turnaround periods between fixtures and being drawn in the opposite half of the draw to the likes of Australia and New Zealand.

“I’ve never heard that before, and I never thought I would hear that,” Wane responded when asked in his semi-final pre-match press conference.

“I just don’t see where that comes from. The Aussies are playing Friday and we’re on Saturday, 24 hours later.

“So they’ll have an extra day in a steam room, nice and relaxed. They’ve got another 24 hours on us.

“I think the World Cup have done a great job. We’re changing hotels this weekend, travelling to London and we look at that as exciting.”

The team that stands between England and a second consecutive final are Samoa, who England beat in surprisingly convincing fashion by 66-6 to raise the curtain at St. James’ Park a few weeks ago.

Despite that, Wane is approaching the tie in a cautious manner.

He added: “We’ll have a guest speaker come talk to the boys this week about resilience and being the underdog, when people don’t expect you to do anything.

“You look at Samoa and you know they’ve got six or seven players that played in the NRL grand final.

“The NRL is a fantastic competition, it’s something which I look up to and learn a lot from and admire. We didn’t have anybody in our team who played in the NRL Grand Final.

“So the fact is that on paper they’ve got some great players in the team, so does New Zealand and Australia, so we do look at ourselves as underdogs.”