Australia are 1-0 up in the three-match Ashes series against England after an emphatic 26-6 drubbing of England at Wembley Stadium.
It was a sobering day for England in front of a record Ashes crowd of 60,812, the likes of Reece Walsh and Angus Crichton running riot as the home side were left without answers to serious questions.
Of course, attention now turns to what ifs. Should the selection change? Should AJ Brimson and Morgan Smithies come in? Can England improve? Are Australia just a level above?
While these are questions that will be answered throughout this week as England head into a must-win match at Everton’s Hill-Dickinson Stadium, the loss evokes just one word for England head coach Shaun Wane: “Torture”. Thinking about what could have been.
“Very, very disappointed. Really, really disappointed,” Wane said.
“I really badly wanted everyone to see the best of our players and the players do.
“They are a tight bunch, a good group of lads, very talented, but we just undersold ourselves today.
“That is torture for me.
“Poor. I know what they’re capable of and I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance to win. It wasn’t close really, they were the best team – no question about that. It hurts a lot.
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Australia’s Nathan Cleary reacts to their 1-0 lead in the Rugby League Ashes series against England.
“We were desperate to put our best show on today and we didn’t do that. The things that we did wrong are easy fixes and we needed to fix them on the run, but we didn’t. The best team won, no doubt about it.
“That makes me even sadder hearing that (it was a record Ashes crowd). We wanted to make them proud. We wanted to challenge Australia so badly, and that’s why I’m so upset.
“It’s easy for us now (motivation). The only thing on our minds now is us being the winners at Everton – we have to win. That dictates how you train and speak. We’ll dust ourselves off; this will hurt the boys but we’ll get in the video room and do some work.”
Tomkins: We simply were not good enough
Wane’s sentiments were echoed by his assistant coach and Sky Sports Rugby League pundit Sam Tomkins, who admitted he was “gutted” that the England he sees in training did not convert to reality on the pitch.
However, he is now motivated to ensure that England head into the third Test of the series with a 1-1 scoreline and all to play for.
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England national rugby league team manager Sam Tomkins reacts to a disappointing result against Australia in their first Ashes Test series game.
“Extremely disappointing. We didn’t see the best of ourselves today. I thought we were, in the first half, not clinical enough.” Tomkins told Sky Sports.
“The positive is it’s a three-test series. We’ve got next week to prove that we’re better than what we showed today, because what we dished up today just simply wasn’t good enough.
“We’ve got some very skilful players in our group that very often at club level complete any opportunity, and tonight we just didn’t, which was massively disappointing. I’m just so gutted that we didn’t see the best version of this England side today.
“Absolutely (we have to focus on making it 1-1). We’re not here to just take part. We want to win every game we’re a part of.
“We weren’t good enough. We’ve got seven days to dust ourselves down, come up with a game plan and execute better next week.”
Rugby League Ashes 2025
First Test: Saturday October 25, Wembley Stadium: England 6-26 Australia
Second Test: Saturday November 1, Everton Stadium, Liverpool
Third Test: Saturday November 8, Headingley Stadium, Leeds
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
