England coach Shaun Wane airs honest reflection of opening Ashes defeat - 'We need to be miles better'
England boss Shaun Wane admitted he felt worse watching their opening Ashes defeat to Australia back several times, insisting his side ‘need to be miles better’ in the following two Test matches as they aim to bounce back.
England were defeated 26-6 by Australia at Wembley last weekend. The Kangaroos were 8-0 up at half-time, with Kevin Walters’ side posting a further 18 points in the second half before Daryl Clark scored a consolation for England late on.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Wane made his feelings clear on the opening Test, having dissected the game in detail.
"(I’ve watched it back) about 12 times and I definitely feel worse,” said Wane.
"We did some good things, but just not enough. I don’t think it was a real Test match, they were too good and the worthy winners. We didn’t really challenge them, which is the most disappointing thing – we didn’t see anywhere near the best of us, and that’s down to me, so it’s something we have to fix this week.”
England travelled back up north to their Manchester training base from Wembley immediately after Saturday’s defeat, and conducted a thorough review on Sunday morning before the camp broke for a few days, with the players reporting back in camp on Tuesday evening as they prepare for Saturday’s second Test at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Wane continued: “We need to look at the training we did, GPS, we spent all weekend studying the details of what we did, every session, every drill, and there is a reason why the players weren’t at their very best at half two last Saturday, and that’s our job.
"The beauty of having a series like this is that you’ve got a chance to go again and put things right.
"We’ll challenge them in more areas, and we’ll end our sets better hopefully, and the knock-on effect from doing that is huge, because we put ourselves under so much pressure.
"We are looking into reasons why (we looked nervous). We had a lot of experience out there, and players felt nervous. We’ve been wanting this series for a long, long time, and it’s had a big build-up in our players’ heads, but hopefully you’ll see a different team this Saturday."
Wane admitted there have been honest discussions amongst the staff and the playing group in the aftermath of their Wembley defeat, with the England boss insisting they need to be miles better if they are to claim a series victory against the touring Australians.
“That’s part of being a coach, you take it personal,” Wane added. “I don’t like it when my team and we as staff underperform.
"We’ve done something in the week that’s led our players to do that on Saturday, but when you look at the bigger picture, we broke them and we didn’t really like our completion at 60 odd per cent, and you just can’t win Test matches like that.
"Our completions were even higher than Australia’s, so it shows how good they were with the ball. They didn’t really go up our end that much, but the tries they scored were long-range, so absolute credit to them, there is no doubt about that, but we need to be miles better.”