SHAUN WANE believes England are now better prepared to challenge Australia thanks to improvements in Super League.
The first Ashes since 2003 provides the biggest test yet for Wane in his sixth year as national coach.
Australia have won the last twelve meetings with England or Great Britain in a run stretching back to 2006, with the most recent encounter their 2017 World Cup final triumph.
And the Kangaroos have also won the last 13 Ashes series – Great Britain last triumphed in 1970.
But Wane believes that England are now more capable of breaking a long run of heartbreaking defeats.
“My memories from years ago are that we always challenge Australia, just not for long enough,” he said.
“The number of times the Kiwis and Australia have got us in the last five minutes is untrue.
“In recent matches we could go for 75 minutes, but (they won) because the Aussies are used to that grind of set-for-set and we weren’t.
“I think we’re more used to that now. You get Super League games where the ball is in play for 60-odd minutes. You can have 25 minutes with no errors or penalties. That’s what we need to make sure we’re prepared for the Aussies.”
However, Wane added that he wanted to see more players of international quality emerge in Super League.
He said: “There’s not enough, but I never say yes to that question. It doesn’t work that way in my brain. I always want better.
“We’ve got three or four halves in this competition who I think could play at Wembley, but I want ten like Australia. That has to be our attitude.
“Fair play to the Super League competition, the coaches are providing us with great players, but our attitude has to be that we need to make it better.
“I’m a big fan of the NRL, I watch every game every week and I know the talent they have over there. I’ve been over there, I watched the Magic Weekend, and I know the talent they’re picking from.
“It’s going to be full-on. We need to be very, very good. Every player needs to perform at their best to give us a chance to win.”
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