So, it’s official. The Ashes are heading back Down Under. Even though this result is hardly shocking, it was maybe even expected, the sense of disappointment is still palpable. Perhaps the thought that England would at least win one of the first tests was prevalent prior to the series, so going into a dead rubber final game feels all the more deflating. The hope will now be that England don’t fall victim to a series whitewash at Headingley this Saturday, a result that England captain George Williams (more on him later) said would be “embarrassing”, but which now seems ever more likely.

With the post-mortem no doubt already underway at Red Hall, I thought I’d add my thoughts to the cacophony of noise currently surrounding the Ashes series, and hope I can make a few salient points for fans and pundits to ponder on as we wait for Saturday, with fingers crossed in the hope England can salvage some pride from this exercise.

Jake Connor

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first, shall we? Shaun Wane said in the lead-up to the series that the Man of Steel and Dream Team “meant nothing to him”, a pig-headed and arrogant statement which, in my opinion, showed why he should be nowhere near the top job. Jake Connor was clearly the best player in the Super League in 2025, there’s no doubt about that, so Wane’s comments about “consistency” ring extremely hollow.

Granted, this year’s Dally M medal winner (Sydney Roosters’ James Tedesco) also doesn’t feature for Australia, but that is because the player made himself unavailable for selection. Do you think that there’s a world where Kevin Walters wouldn’t have picked Tedesco would he be available? Of course not. You need a squad of the best possible players who are in the best form, so to not take the player who won the award for best individual season is close-minded and, I’ll say it again, arrogant.

Similarly, the exclusion of Dream Team players such as Umyla Hanley, Dean Hadley, and Liam Marshall is also a sign of a coach with his blinkers on. Sure, it could be said that Hanley wouldn’t get in the team ahead of Wardle and Farnworth, but at the very least he should have been there as a depth option. Dean Hadley in particular has been deserving of an England call-up for at least the past two seasons, and the fact that he will most likely retire without a single cap to his name is quite frankly a travesty. His versatility alone should have seen him easily make the squad, and given the evidence of the first test, he’d certainly have more to offer than John Bateman would at second row.

Returning to my original point around Jake Connor, though, Connor is, amongst many other things, a maverick, that’s what makes him hardest to play against. Had Wane coupled Connor with fellow mercurial maverick Mikey Lewis in the halves, the results could have been magical. They could also quite as easily been catastrophic given both players massive on-field personalities, but they would have been a hell of a lot more difficult to play against than the old faithful of Smith and Williams. Speaking of which…

George Williams

I’m sorry to say it, but George Williams is past it. No self-respecting England coach would have even picked the Warrington Wolves man in his 24-man squad, much less made him captain, and the coach’s persistence in picking his old guard has proven to be his undoing. Williams just hasn’t looked like he belonged on the pitch in either test, probably being amongst England’s weakest links in the team in both tests, and this is the man trusted with leading the side. His day has come and gone, much like many others in the team, and it’s time to cut them loose.

As I said, it’s baffling that Williams even made the team, given who was available in his position, namely the aforementioned Jake Connor, but then there’s Mikey Lewis who, granted, didn’t pull up any trees in the first test, but he was being played out of position, being as he is a number six playing as a seven to crowbar in Wane’s golden boy at six. Alternatively, Jake Connor (who I will stop banging on about soon, I promise) is a number seven, so his inclusion would allow Mikey Lewis to play in his natural position, and give the opposition the headache of having to defend against two jack-in-the-box halves in their natural places. It seems pretty basic to say that the two best players in the competition (at least according to Man of Steel rankings) should be playing for their national side, but the coach disagrees. Speaking of Shaun Wane…

Shaun Wane

Another person whose time has come and gone is the coach. If his squad selection prior to the series weren’t enough of an indicator of him flailing wildly about like a drowning man in a vast ocean, then his decision-making and tactics should have sealed the deal. Firstly, there’s his team selection for the first test. Choosing Jack Welsby, a player who spent a large chunk of the season out injured, as your starting full back over the NRL-tested AJ Brimson again hints at the ‘old boys club’ mentality that Wane possess. It doesn’t matter how good you are, or have been this season, the same people are guaranteed their place, and you get the scraps, that’s just the way it is.

As pointed out in this week’s League Express by Ashes veteran Garry Schofield, the rugby being served up by England so far has been boring. Australia have had an answer to everything they do because they can see everything coming a mile away. There’s no fluidity or spontaneity to England’s play, it’s structured, rigid, and predictable. England could still be playing in Liverpool now and not have scored past Australia.

The question of England coach is, however, a tough nut to crack. Shaun Wane is absolutely not the man for the job, that much is evident. No-one who is currently working at or with a Super League team should be England coach, it’s too much of a conflict of interest, and the fact that I have to point that out is quite frankly embarrassing for the sport. Could you imagine Thomas Tuchel managing England whilst still being at Chelsea? No, of course not, but for some reason it happens in rugby league.

I would absolutely part ways with Wane if I were making the decision. This series has shown that we are not at the Aussies level on or off the pitch, and we’re not likely to have gained that much ground by next year’s World Cup, so why not use the next year as a learning experience? Give the job to a young, hungry coach, and pick a team of young, hungry players. Let’s face it, we’re not likely to win the World Cup next year on the basis of this series, so why not treat it as a chance to blood your next generation? If they don’t go far, no harm no foul, you weren’t expecting them to, but if they do make the semi-final, or even the final, you then have a team of young, talented players who now have the experience of playing on the biggest stage, and, more importantly, still have time to grow and improve, so by the time the next World Cup comes around in 2030, they should be contenders.

As for who I would choose as Shaun Wane’s successor, I’m not sure. Paul Rowley would have been an ideal candidate, but he’s not likely to walk away from Saints straight after joining them. Daryl Powell is another name I’ve seen mentioned, but he’s just signed a new long-term deal at Wakefield and likely feels he has unfinished business. Not to mention he may well be a bit long in the tooth for the job. I wouldn’t be against appointing a coach from overseas, personally. One of the biggest gripes people tend to have about England coaches is their past (or in Wane’s case, current) affiliations or biases, what better way to combat that than bringing in someone who couldn’t possibly have such attachments? I know it didn’t work out with Wayne Bennett, but in my view that was always bound to fail. If Shaun Wane is a dinosaur, then Wayne Bennett is a single-celled organism and even more hard-headed than Wane. Picking someone who’s currently an assistant in the NRL and has something to prove would be not bad move, in my opinion.

I think, if we are to stick to the remit of a strictly English coach, then choices are thin on the ground, but if we are to take my suggestion of young, hungry, and most importantly, unproven coaches, then why not test the waters with Lee Briers and Andy Last for the year? See how they do with the chance to imprint their own philosophies on the squad with a year to prepare (preferably with a younger team) and see how they do. Similarly to my point about a younger playing squad, if they don’t light the world on fire, that’s fine, they go in without the expectation of going far, but if they do find success, you’ve then got coaches who can mature with their team and could, in theory, be a force to be reckoned with in a few years’ time.

Written by Nathan Major (Site editor & Hull KR fan)