Shaun Wane plans to sit down with the powers that be in the coming weeks to discuss what went wrong in the Ashes and how things could improve at next year’s World Cup.
England were thumped 3-0 by Australia this autumn and while there were positives throughout the autumn, with attendance and public interest being major ones, the performance on the field was subpar. Wane’s side were always considered big underdogs against the world champions, but their attacking struggles have seen the head coach and a raft of players come under fire.
Ultimately, England scored two tries over the entire series, with Daryl Clark and George Williams being the only players to touch down. And, they were well beaten in two of the three Tests, with the 14-4 loss at Everton being a lot tighter.
In the aftermath of the third Test at Headingley, Wane spoke about the advantages the Australians have down under in that they have more rest and play less but more intense games than Super League players.
Of course, a majority of Wane’s squad is made up of Super League players and many will be expected to return to pre-season training in December at some point, with pre-season already underway at some clubs ahead of an early February season opener.
Wane also pointed to the difficulties he faces during the season in just getting his players together for an off-feet meeting.
Shaun Wane points to challenges after Ashes failure
“What happens commercially with Super League, that’s out of my hands,” Shaun Wane told the press at Headingley on Saturday evening. “I just know the amount of games we play compared to them and the intensity of games, how much rest the players get.
“I understand there’s a commerciality what you need to look at with Super League to make it work but if you look at the break George [Williams] is going to get compared an Australian player, he’s back in in four and a half weeks. He’ll play 10 more games next year.
“It’s a tough ask and we expect them to kill it in a World Cup next year. It’s hard but if that’s the way it’s going to be then we’ll knuckle down and do the best we can with our players and hopefully see a better result.”
He added: “I had the chance this year for four two-day off feet sessions but when you look at how condensed the season is, we had a job to get the players in for a video session and that’s tough.
“To go into a series like this, with four or five off-feet video sessions and sometimes not having the players for that either, it’s been tough. It’s a credit to the players to turn up with the performance we had in the second Test and part of that performance.
“I understand from a head coach’s point of view and a CEO’s point of view about the challenges clubs have as well. I’ve been there. It’s tough trying to find that balance but you can rest assured that the RFL and RL Commercial, the players, the staff, we all want the same thing. We were all desperate to get a result in this series. Sadly, it just wasn’t good enough.
“I need to have a conversation in the next few weeks about the direction we’re going in and I’ll make recommendations of what we need to do to give ourselves a chance of having these players prepared for a World Cup next year.”
