England coach Shaun Wane calls for improvement after Test win as Samoa boss is upset over sin-binning
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The series victory came a year after England won all three Tests against Tonga and Wane’s side are unbeaten since their World Cup semi-final loss to Samoa in 2022. Confidence is high ahead of a home Ashes series next year and Wane said: “I was really happy with last year, beating Tonga 3-0.
“Doing this, winning 2-0, is an absolute credit to your players and staff and how hard they have worked. There was some fantastic rugby, especially in the first Test.”
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England ran in six tries, two of them by NRL centre Herbie Farnworth, whose break also set up one for Jack Welsby. Stand-off George Williams and wingers Matty Ashton and Liam Marshall, on his international debut, were England’s other try scorers.
Wane, whose side won the opening Test 34-18 six days earlier, added: “We played well. Samoa were fantastic, it was a good Test match. Herbie was really really good. In both games, he has been outstanding. I am glad he is English!”
However, the coach feels England have to step up to have any chance against the Kangaroos in 12 months’ time. “There’s areas we need to get better,” he stressed. “We know what we are capable of, we know we need to improve.”
England scored twice against 12 men after Junior Pauga was yellow carded for a high tackle on John Bateman at a crucial stage in the first half, when the hosts led only 8-6. Samoa coach Ben Gardiner felt the sin-binning was “pretty crucial”.
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He said: “In any game a sin-binning is going to have an impact. I thought at first it was for a crusher tackle. I asked Junior and he was told he was sin-binned for a high tackle.
“He made impact with the player with his hip, not his arm. The impact was hip to head, accidental impact with no malice in it, I haven’t seen that sin-binned in the past.
“A freak incident like that, Junior should’ve been given the benefit of the doubt. The player [Bateman] got up after the incident and played on, no problem at all.”
Gardiner stressed he had no argument with the result. “At the end of the day England were excellent,” he admitted. “They deserved to win, I don’t want to take anything away from them.”
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Gardiner, who is an assistant-coach at NRL champions Penrith Panthers, reckons England will cause the Aussies problems next year. He said: “The England team are very strong, I think it’ll be a great tour. It’s a strong Australia against a really strong England team, they should be great Test matches.”
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