Wane confirmed as England Coach until 2025 World Cup

[ELBOWSEYE]

49 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Why wouldn’t Smith coach England? Unless there’s been something I’ve missed, I don’t see why he couldn’t. 

There will be options. I suspect Watson, Rowley et al would jump at the chance, more likely part-time than a full-time position, which could be preventing some being interested. 

Bennett‘s time ended in farce and not all through his own doing and managed what Wane couldn’t, a final appearance. 

Wane’s the easy option, let’s be honest. Is it a full-time role? What does he do for the majority of the year that warrants a full-time contract?

I never said he should be coach, but nothing you write is anything but an opinion (thats what this site is for). There was no chance of any of those coaches taking on the role at this point in any capacity. You may disagree but I feel as strongly as you that I am right. (but we will never know). 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

Brian McDermott....

[Tex Evans Thigh]

As disappointed and angry as I still am at that semi defeat, objectively, he did a decent job overall and nothing seemed to go right that day. Up to then we had been excellent. My biggest gripe then and now is his selection policy. I get that he didn't have much choice in some areas but the Wigan bias with Mickey Mac as the most obvious example is frustrating. I don't know how it will manifest itself by 2025 but will no doubt still be a problem.

[Jamie_]

I think the WCC victory from Saints makes me look at the England/Samoa semi-final a bit differently if I'm being honest. Either way, not that worked up about the most part-time job in world sport. Only 1 match confirmed for 2023 that he actually has to manage as of yet. 

[RigbyLuger]

If the RFL can announce "Micky Macs" retirement from international rugby league, that'd be great.

[lucky 7]

15 hours ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

Brian McDermott....

Fev fans would be rolling on the floor laughing after his spell there.

He lost the respect of the players and from there is was downward spiral for him

[Tex Evans Thigh]

7 hours ago, lucky 7 said:

Fev fans would be rolling on the floor laughing after his spell there.

He lost the respect of the players and from there is was downward spiral for him

I am a Fev fan

[Davo5]

On 28/02/2023 at 23:03, Tex Evans Thigh said:

As disappointed and angry as I still am at that semi defeat, objectively, he did a decent job overall and nothing seemed to go right that day. Up to then we had been excellent. My biggest gripe then and now is his selection policy. I get that he didn't have much choice in some areas but the Wigan bias with Mickey Mac as the most obvious example is frustrating. I don't know how it will manifest itself by 2025 but will no doubt still be a problem.

Picking a Catalans player is Wigan bias

[Harry Stottle]

57 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Picking a Catalans player is Wigan bias

No but Mickey Mac was at Wigan from '07 to '17 and Wane was assistant coach for 2 years from '09 before becoming head coach in '11, I should think that connection would not be to taxing for you to understand Dav

[Davo5]

42 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

No but Mickey Mac was at Wigan from '07 to '17 and Wane was assistant coach for 2 years from '09 before becoming head coach in '11, I should think that connection would not be to taxing for you to understand Dav

A player who hasn’t played at Wigan for over 4 yrs is hardly showing a Wigan bias now is it or was him picking the current Man of Steel or the current Wire halfback along with 2 current Wigan players an example of Wane’s mates club.

[Barley Mow]

31 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Apparently England know their autumn opponents but can’t announce due to NRL collective bargaining negotiations. Almost If spending a decade basing your international game sucking on the NRL teet and doing nothing to grow NH was a bad idea 

Not being able to announce it yet (or even during the World Cup last year) is far from ideal.

But if that's right and we get the Euros and SH opposition in the autumn then I'm happier with that than just having the Euros.

We need to play France regularly (we are at least once this year), but also need as much international rugby as possible and against the most competitive opposition where available.

No begging or suckling anyone's teat, but where both England and SH opposition want a series, then do it.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Harry Stottle]

24 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

Not being able to announce it yet (or even during the World Cup last year) is far from ideal.

But if that's right and we get the Euros and SH opposition in the autumn then I'm happier with that than just having the Euros.

We need to play France regularly (we are at least once this year), but also need as much international rugby as possible and against the most competitive opposition where available.

No begging or suckling anyone's teat, but where both England and SH opposition want a series, then do it.

France will not have the player's in the next 10 years to give England competitive fixtures, unless that is they can persuade top class foreigners to stay long enough to get 'residency' selection.

[Barley Mow]

47 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

France will not have the player's in the next 10 years to give England competitive fixtures, unless that is they can persuade top class foreigners to stay long enough to get 'residency' selection.

That sounds like what the Aussies say about us! 

I just think we should play as many internationals as possible - it is the easiest way to expand the reach of the game (at home and overseas). Play weaker nations, play stronger nations, just play as many internationals as we can, and promote them.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Davo5]

50 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

France will not have the player's in the next 10 years to give England competitive fixtures, unless that is they can persuade top class foreigners to stay long enough to get 'residency' selection.

Yeah if you cant beat another country in 17 yrs we should cease all international competitions between those 2 countries.

[ELBOWSEYE]

1 minute ago, Davo5 said:

Yeah if you cant beat another country in 17 yrs we should cease all international competitions between those 2 countries.

Is that why the aussies don't play us

[RigbyLuger]

Have England recognised the European thing happening this autumn?

[Tex Evans Thigh]

3 hours ago, Davo5 said:

A player who hasn’t played at Wigan for over 4 yrs is hardly showing a Wigan bias now is it or was him picking the current Man of Steel or the current Wire halfback along with 2 current Wigan players an example of Wane’s mates club.

You cannot be serious. Honest to god, if you can't see his biases you have serious perception problems and/or are incredibly sensitive and taking it as a personal insult because you support Wigan. He picked Mickey Mac because he coached him at Wigan. In this context, it's the simplest and most obvious thing to grasp that I can think of.

No one has any problem with current or ex-Wigan players being picked, there are lots of excellent ones, but he can't afford to be so blinkered and biased in his selections. I suspect you actually get this and are just trolling.

[Man of Kent]

4 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

Apparently England know their autumn opponents but can’t announce due to NRL collective bargaining negotiations. Almost If spending a decade basing your international game sucking on the NRL teet and doing nothing to grow NH was a bad idea 

Tonga three-game series after the Super League GF this year and a Kangaroos tour here & France next year is the rumour.

[Davo5]

2 hours ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

You cannot be serious. Honest to god, if you can't see his biases you have serious perception problems and/or are incredibly sensitive and taking it as a personal insult because you support Wigan. He picked Mickey Mac because he coached him at Wigan. In this context, it's the simplest and most obvious thing to grasp that I can think of.

No one has any problem with current or ex-Wigan players being picked, there are lots of excellent ones, but he can't afford to be so blinkered and biased in his selections. I suspect you actually get this and are just trolling.

No issues here,you on the other hand,well you are a Fev fan.

[EagleEyePie]

I'm in the camp of people who think the coach doesn't make a massive difference at this level. I mean everything I read about Matt Parish from Australian based press was far from complimentary but the guy got Samoa to a World Cup final. Kristian Woolf has already proven himself a pretty good coach but he was bested by Parish and Samoa too.

People are now suggesting our route to the final was easy as if Samoa were pushovers, clearly buying into the hype of the opening game when we caught them cold and then some. Samoa were the favourites for that game because they had quality players. They were tipped to go far because of the strength of NRL stars they had. They didn't become terrible because England battered them. The only reason England were favourites for the semi was the opening game result.

In the semi England put in a pretty disappointing performance and still took the game to golden point against a fairly evenly matched opponent. That's not good enough, but it's also not so disastrous that it requires so much soul searching. Wane only had a handful of games in charge and most of them were games he couldn't pick his preferred team for various reasons. That leads me to the next point.

His team selection was always going to be criticised because every England coach has their team selection criticised. It was quite heavily reliant on players he was most familiar with and those who had been there and done it previously (Hill, Cooper, Hall) but given the lack of meaningful preparation isn't that sort of obvious? Any coach is going to do that because it's common sense. He still gave opportunities to newer players like Dom Young but made sure there were players he could rely upon.

I don't think the arguments about picking his 'Wigan mates' stands up to much scrutiny given the names people were suggesting should have been included are hardly star players likely to give the Aussies much pause for thought. Ultimately many of the players who failed to perform in the semi final were ones who had previously performed well throughout the tournament. Was anyone calling for Welsby not to be included for that semi final? He was quality in the tournament right until that last game. I don't think you can put that all on Wane and Welsby will be all the better for that tough experience.

Having said that, I think his reliance on McIlorum was a big mistake. I get that we weren't exactly blessed with quality hooking options but it seemed like it made the decision easy for himself and it shouldn't have been. McIlorum may have been Catalans player of the year last season but he's a long way from his best these days. Every coach has his favourites and every coach has bias, but it was a step too far and hopefully Wane has realised that. 

It may be making excuses but I think if you pick a coach that you think is the right person for the job you have to give them the time and the means to be successful. That includes having enough competitive games to give players and combinations a try. That doesn't mean I think he should be given until the next world cup. If we actually have some Autumn internationals and perform poorly then it's hard to argue he should continue as we should be seeing some progression.

[Man of Kent]

36 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

I'm in the camp of people who think the coach doesn't make a massive difference at this level. I mean everything I read about Matt Parish from Australian based press was far from complimentary but the guy got Samoa to a World Cup final. Kristian Woolf has already proven himself a pretty good coach but he was bested by Parish and Samoa too.

People are now suggesting our route to the final was easy as if Samoa were pushovers, clearly buying into the hype of the opening game when we caught them cold and then some. Samoa were the favourites for that game because they had quality players. They were tipped to go far because of the strength of NRL stars they had. They didn't become terrible because England battered them. The only reason England were favourites for the semi was the opening game result.

In the semi England put in a pretty disappointing performance and still took the game to golden point against a fairly evenly matched opponent. That's not good enough, but it's also not so disastrous that it requires so much soul searching. Wane only had a handful of games in charge and most of them were games he couldn't pick his preferred team for various reasons. That leads me to the next point.

His team selection was always going to be criticised because every England coach has their team selection criticised. It was quite heavily reliant on players he was most familiar with and those who had been there and done it previously (Hill, Cooper, Hall) but given the lack of meaningful preparation isn't that sort of obvious? Any coach is going to do that because it's common sense. He still gave opportunities to newer players like Dom Young but made sure there were players he could rely upon.

I don't think the arguments about picking his 'Wigan mates' stands up to much scrutiny given the names people were suggesting should have been included are hardly star players likely to give the Aussies much pause for thought. Ultimately many of the players who failed to perform in the semi final were ones who had previously performed well throughout the tournament. Was anyone calling for Welsby not to be included for that semi final? He was quality in the tournament right until that last game. I don't think you can put that all on Wane and Welsby will be all the better for that tough experience.

Having said that, I think his reliance on McIlorum was a big mistake. I get that we weren't exactly blessed with quality hooking options but it seemed like it made the decision easy for himself and it shouldn't have been. McIlorum may have been Catalans player of the year last season but he's a long way from his best these days. Every coach has his favourites and every coach has bias, but it was a step too far and hopefully Wane has realised that. 

It may be making excuses but I think if you pick a coach that you think is the right person for the job you have to give them the time and the means to be successful. That includes having enough competitive games to give players and combinations a try. That doesn't mean I think he should be given until the next world cup. If we actually have some Autumn internationals and perform poorly then it's hard to argue he should continue as we should be seeing some progression.

Agree with much of this.

Even if we could have picked any coach in the world, nobody would have made as much difference as if Alex Walmsley had been fit.

[Davo5]

We have some outstanding young players coming through & Wane has never been afraid to give youth their chance so maybe reappointing him is a shrewd decision by the RFL.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

On 02/03/2023 at 12:31, Davo5 said:

No issues here,you on the other hand,well you are a Fev fan.

What do you mean by that?

[JohnM]

On 02/03/2023 at 19:55, Man of Kent said:

Agree with much of this.

Even if we could have picked any coach in the world, nobody would have made as much difference as if Alex Walmsley had been fit.

Indeed. This is often overlooked.

[Eddie]

On 02/03/2023 at 10:45, ShropshireBull said:

Apparently England know their autumn opponents but can’t announce due to NRL collective bargaining negotiations. Almost If spending a decade basing your international game sucking on the NRL teet and doing nothing to grow NH was a bad idea 

What should the RFL do, in your opinion, to grow rugby league in other northern hemisphere countries?