Rugby League Ashes: Error-prone England suffer ‘torture’ at Wembley

It’s never a good sign for a head coach to describe an international match involving his team as “torture”.

Shaun Wane was clearly pained after watching the England team suffer a comprehensive 26-6 defeat against Australia at Wembley in their first Ashes match in 22 years.

In reality, it could have been much worse. Australia started slowly and were only eight points ahead at half-time, but visibly relaxed in the second half, while England squandered opportunities and made simple mistakes.

Australia will retain the Ashes if they beat England at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool next weekend and they are not out of second gear yet.

“They are very disappointed in the locker room,” Wane said in his speech to his players in the post-match media conference. “I really wanted to see the best of our players, but we undersold ourselves today. It’s torture for me.”

The difference in quality between the sides was revealed with the first movements of the full-backs in the second half.

Player of the match Reece Walsh carried the ball 80 meters after a slip from England’s much-vaunted scrum-half Mikey Lewis. While England resisted the initial push, the ground gained provided Australia with the platform to score a superb score with the second try of the match.

“Reece Walsh saved two tries and scored two goals,” former England forward James Graham told BBC One. “Let’s not forget the timeout he made at the beginning of the second half, which determined the course of the match.”

The try resulting from the break was scored by second-row Angus Crichton, who evaded England full-back Jack Welsby and scored.

Unlike the forward-thinking Walsh, Welsby was caught. He backed away from Crichton until his heels were on the try line; By the time he made a limp attempt to tackle his man, it was too late.

This was what tormented Wane the most; Not to be outclassed by the world’s number one international team and be among the clear favorites in this series, but to be left behind in the fray.

“I know what these players can do, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win,” he said. “It hurts a lot; we didn’t put on our best show today. The things we did wrong were easy fixes.

“They outplayed us and left us behind. It’s easy to fix but it has a knock-on effect. It was simple rugby; we didn’t pay attention to the details.”