Shaun Wane “upset” by Tongan “excuse” making

England have claimed their first ever series win under former Wigan Warriors boss Shaun Wane with as they enter the third test against Tonga at Leeds Rhinos with a 2-0 lead and Wane wants a series whitewash.

Part of this is likely inspired by the fact that he feels disrespected by Tonga with what he feels has been a series of excuses. After the win at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, former St Helens boss and Tonga boss Kristian Woolf stated that he wasn’t pleased with the ruck speed or indeed the conditions.

Wane has taken that as an “insult” saying as such to NRL.com this week and then post match on BBC Wane hit out again at what he felt was disrespect from Tonga.

Woolf responded saying he only “speaks the truth.” After the game the war of words would only continue with Woolf chalking the defeat up to the English way and Wane saying he was proud of his side but questioned what Tonga’s next excuse would be.

Wane said he was “really upset” by what had been said: “I’m really, really proud. I was absolutely desperate to win that game today, just from the things that’s been said about my players this week, and about my team, my mates, really upset me.”

He then added that it was a major motivator for his side: “It was a massive motivator for us, them talking about how ‘we didn’t win the game’, they don’t know Mikey, and the ground wasn’t right and it was heavy. The excuse about the ruck and the referees cheating, so to prove them wrong by a firm pitch, a really slow ruck, and they couldn’t have anything their own way again.”

He lastly said that it was disrespectful and asked what their next excuse would be: “It was just showing a lot of disrespect from the players so to get those two wins is great and I’d be interested to see what the next excuse is.”