Defiant England coach Shaun Wane says he's 'right man' for World Cup job despite 3-0 Ashes loss
Coach Shaun Wane “knows” he is the right man to mastermind England’s World Cup campaign next year, despite the 3-0 Ashes whitewash by Australia.
A 30-8 loss in the finale at Leeds Rhinos’ AMT Headingley followed defeats by 26-6 at Wembley and 14-4 in Liverpool. Wane took charge in 2020 and remains under contract. Asked in his post-match press conference following the final game if he believes he is the right man for the job of leading England into the 2026 global tournament, Wane said: “I don’t believe, I know I am. And pressed he still feels he has support from the RFL, he added: “The only people who I want [backing from] are the players and the staff and I know I’ve got that.”
Captain George Williams, seated alongside Wane, insisted the players remain “100 per cent” behind their boss. He said: “Disappointing as this season has been, what we have built has been good under Shaun and he is definitely the right man.”
Wane will hold talks with the governing body to review England’s performance. “I’ll do a report on the series and what my thoughts are and sit down with people at the RFL,” he added. “They want to make it better; they don’t like us losing and we don’t, we’re all pulling in the same direction. We have to be better for the World Cup next year.”
England trailed by only four points with 20 minutes remaining in front of a sell-out 19,500 crowd at AMT, but conceded three late tries to finish well beaten. They managed only two tries and 18 points in the series and reflecting on what went wrong in the latest loss and the campaign as a whole, Wane admitted: “I think we’ve not played well enough for long enough periods against a really good team. This is a different challenge against a team that is going to ask you questions continually for 80 minutes and we couldn’t do it for long enough periods."