England boss Shaun Wane confirms a 'few' changes for second Australia Test
England coach Shaun Wane has confirmed he will make ‘a few’ changes to his 17-man squad that will face Australia in the second Ashes Test at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
England went down to a 26-6 defeat to Australia in the opening game of the Ashes series last Saturday, which was watched by a record crowd of more than 60,000 for an Ashes Test on British soil.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Wane said he would be making changes to his 17-man squad, although he kept his cards close to his chest in regards to names.
"Yeah, (there will be) a few,” Wane replied when asked if he would be making changes for the Everton Test.
"I’m going to see the coaches again. We had a meeting this morning, and we’ll have another meeting this afternoon (on Tuesday). The players are coming in at 5pm (on Tuesday), we had a long day on Sunday, so the players are just having a couple more hours off this afternoon, they are coming in at 5pm, but we’re going to look into it about what we need to do and make sure the team is going to be a lot more equipped.
“At the end of the day, I want a team to go out on Saturday and for it to look like a proper Test match. It didn’t look like a Test match to me – it wasn’t physical. They were better in many areas, so this week has to look like a real Test match, and we need to give a better account of ourselves. Whether I make two or four changes, I’m not sure yet.”
In his post-match press conference at Wembley, Wane mentioned that they need to have a better end to their sets in the following two Tests. As a result, the England boss was asked whether Wigan Warriors star Harry Smith came into his thinking this week.
"Yeah, he was in my thinking for last Saturday as well,” Wane smiled. “It’s a really good 24-man squad we’ve got, there are lots of players that could’ve played last week and they’re all going to be available for selection this week as well.”