England saved the best for last in their three-match series against Tonga. Shaun Wane’s side secured a clean sweep in the series on Saturday with a 26-4 victory at Leeds, having beaten the tourists 14-4 in Huddersfield and 22-18 in St Helens last month. The new-look England side bounced back impressively after their nightmare defeat to Samoa in the World Cup last year, but what did we learn from the series?
What did England’s 3-0 series win prove?
Tonga are fifth in the world rankings, so a clean sweep victory reaffirms England are a world-class team. They sit above Samoa and Tonga in the pecking order but below world champions Australia and New Zealand, who humbled the Kangaroos by a record 30-0 margin on Saturday.
Wane has only taken charge of 13 games in his four seasons as England manager, but this is very much his team. “I so badly wanted to win this,” said Wane. “I was desperate for 3-0. Tonga really tested us and we showed a desire to defend. Our detail was outstanding. We showed we can handle bigger bodies and we can play.”
For Wane, the last few seconds of the series epitomised the spirit in his camp. England were leading 26-4 when Jack Welsby and Harry Newman bundled Tonga wing Tolutau Koula into touch inches from the line. “Two players nearly injuring themselves to stop a try – that was England.”
Kristian Woolf was impressed. “England were exceptionally good,” said the Tonga coach. “Every time we had opportunities they did an excellent job of scrambling. England deserve enormous credit.” Are they getting closer to the top two? “You’ve got to play extremely well when you play Australia or New Zealand – and England too.”
Did England find the right balance between entertaining and stopping Tonga?
To concede just five tries in a three-match series is quite an achievement, even if the visitors were missing half their first-choice side. Wane’s side showed an impressive belligerence across the pitch, something he admitted he could not have dreamed of before the series. England’s tenacity had Wane’s stamp all over it: they were conservative and disciplined when required, but chose their moments to cut loose and open up perfectly.
With the game in the bag, Headingley was in danger of falling asleep around the hour mark as darkness fell. But the crowd of 15,000 soon exploded into life. Half the England team combined on the left before Harry Smith volleyed a magnificent 40-metre pass into space on the right for Newman to juggle and make it 24-0. Smith, the player of the series, explained his genius rather flippantly: “I mess about with different kicks at the end of training. I thought I’d give it a welly and it looked quite good.” Wane gave Lee Briers, his assistant coach, the credit for dreaming up the move.
What did George Williams do differently to Mikey Lewis?
The England half-back “partnership” is more of a balancing act, with scrum-half Smith being the ying to his stand-off’s yang. In the second test, Smith and Lewis did not connect directly until nearly half an hour had elapsed. On Saturday, Smith and Williams also only passed to each other three times in the first half.
Instead, youngster Smith marshalled the left side and kicked prodigiously again, while the vastly experienced Williams took much more of the baton than the rookie Lewis had. While Williams mirrored Lewis in marshalling the right side of the ruck and helping out at dummy-half in exit sets, he played a textbook league stand-off role, lurking two off the ruck, whereas Lewis played more like a union No 12. Williams was busier in attack, drifting around the back of Smith on numerous occasions looking to ghost in from nowhere.
Wane played down the idea that Smith and Lewis have now nailed down their places among the halves in his squad. “They were four and five in line coming into this series but not anymore,” said Wane. “There’s Jonny [Lomax], George [Williams] and Lewis [Dodd] too, so they’ve got to get better. George is up there with the best in the world. He did some good things. Harry was really good, but can get a lot better.” Given that Wanes is from the Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough school of complimenting individuals in public, that was high praise.
Are we seeing England’s 2026 World Cup team already?
Pretty much. Wane is undoubtedly loyal but this was the first year of a new four-year project. John Bateman was the only survivor from Wane’s first match in charge in June 2021 and he may not be around by October 2026. While Whitehead has retired from internationals and we may not see veteran Chris Hill again, Bateman and Tom Burgess will need to bridge the gap to the next generation of Wane’s favoured forwards: Tyler Dupree, Morgan Knowles, Morgan Smithies and Robbie Mulhern.
Wane built a trusted core of 13 players before the World Cup last year and he is now doing it again. Welsby has played in 11 of Wane’s 13 games in charge; Williams, Burgess and Hill have played in nine; Mike McMeeken, Whitehead, Knowles and Victor Radley have featured in eight. Welsby has eased into Sam Tomkins’ old role as the roaming full-back who becomes a third half in attack, and Smith has flourished at scrum-half. The hooker role appears to be Daryl Clark’s to lose, with Danny Walker providing fresh legs off the bench. Matty Lees has replaced Mike Cooper as the versatile forward. And Tom Johnstone has perfected Ryan Hall’s raging bull winger routine. The team is almost there.
What next for England (and Tonga)?
No one knows. Wane says he expects to play a mid-season international – probably in France – and a three-match series against Samoa in England next autumn. But Woolf suggested that’s optimistic. “Don’t count that as a given yet,” said the Tonga coach. “I’m not so sure. We’re in discussions with [Samoa] about playing there.”
The lure of the Pacific Championship will make it difficult to persuade another team to follow Tonga’s path and play a three-match series in England. If Samoa reject England’s invitation it could be given to Fiji instead.
“A different audience watch international games but they need to be meaningful, like this series was,” said Woolf, who will wait until he knows the schedule before deciding whether to continue as Tonga coach for a tenth year. “Four or five games at the end of the season doesn’t work, but two or three does. We sacrificed a lot to be here, but the challenge was good for us. We brought six players aged 21 or under and they learned a hell of a lot. They saw what it means to be a Tongan man. They couldn’t have had a better learning curve.”
Did the RFL get the venues right?
Probably. The choice to play at St Helens, Huddersfield and Leeds was criticised but, outside of World Cups, the crowd of 15,477 at Headingley was the biggest for a home England or Great Britain match not involving the Kiwis or Kangaroos for 60 years – only the 2016 double-header against Scotland at Coventry (which also featured New Zealand v Australia) drew more.
On Saturday, several thousand supporters watched the England women’s team stroll to a 60-0 victory over Wales in the opening game. The noisy fans in the busy South Stand were clearly familiar with the players and there were plenty of chants for Amy Hardcastle when she was named player of the match.
The aggregate crowd of 39,585 for the series was the smallest since the Kiwis visited in 1980 and the fourth lowest since the second world war, but the RFL’s decision to use value-for-money, mid-sized venues kept their outlay within the sport. It’s hard to argue with that.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion