England thumped Tonga 3-0 in the long-awaited return of an autumn international rugby league Test series, but what did we learn from it?
Big-hitting Tonga, led by St Helens’ three-times Grand Final winner Kristian Woolf, had a huge point to prove having failed to justify the hype around them at last year’s World Cup. England on the other hand were, by their own admission, still licking their wounds from an even more painful World Cup failure.
So this was set up for a very tasty series, a first real autumn series outside of World Cups for England since the 2016 Four Nations at a time where international rugby league needs a major lift. So did it get it?
England progress since the World Cup?
Impossible to say. Other than a mid-season mis-match with France, a few weeks in camp at the end of a long season - as welcome as it has been - is not enough for meaningful progress. The handing over of the leadership baton from Sam Tomkins to George Williams never really happened with the latter suspended for two of the three games. But on the field there was composure, guile and resolve. The Shaun Wane England project did feel a little further down the path.
Tonga are bad travellers.
We need to give England a lot of credit here for a series whitewash against a very physical side. They faced the challenge head on and overwhelmed it.
But we also have to be honest in acknowledging that Woolf’s side were hugely disappointing again. Facing the media at the start of this series, Woolf told The Sportsman that his side wanted to make up for going out in the World Cup quarter finals and “show that we can come to this part of the world and be at our best over three games”.
They failed again and are very clearly a completely different beast when playing in the Southern Hemisphere, where they almost beat England in the epic 2017 semi-final and did beat Great Britain, and Australia in 2019.
Emerging talent.
This is the bit where we can get excited. Sam Tomkins has gone, Elliot Whitehead announced his international retirement before the third Test and there will be one or two more to follow. International mainstays Ryan Hall and Kallum Watkins were both absent too so step forward England’s new breed. Winger Tom Johnstone’s exceptional season with Catalans led to a Man of Steel nomination and international call and he looked every bit an England player. Matty Ashton took his chance on the other wing when injury sidelined Tommy Makinson, while if Harry Newman can stay fit then he can form a dynamic centre partnership with Herbie Farnworth.
Full-back Jack Welsby will be England captain for years when Williams is not around, and it speaks volumes of Player of the Series Harry Smith and Mikey Lewis in the halves that it seemed a travesty when captain Williams got back in the side. England have been crying out for someone to kick them around the park like Smith did, and although Wane will be loyal to Williams there is real pressure from the exhilarating Lewis, England’s star of the opening Test.
Wane’s World.
Shaun Wane inspires his players by creating an “us against them” siege mentality. It worked again in this series by convincing his players they had been disrespected by some comments made by Woolf and Tonga. It fired up his loyal foot soldiers and they got the job done. In the World Cup he tried something similar, and even had Ant Middleton in camp to give a chest-thumping motivational speech before their World Cup semi-final with Samoa. Some argued that one backfired, England lost their discipline when it mattered most and lost a game they should have won. The normally cucumber cool Welsby was a chief culprit, fired up for a scrap he lost a lot of the rugby intelligence that sets him out as a superstar, instead coming up with big errors.
Wane is old school. Loyal, passionate, he will die for his players and expects the same back, before all going for a pint after. His predecessor, the great Wayne Bennett shares a lot of these qualities, and wasn’t really given a chance. So that is the very least Wane deserves building towards the next World Cup.
St Helens v Wigan
This was a very odd undercurrent to the series from the moment Tonga arrived. Wane is of course Mr Wigan and Woolf is Mr St Helens so there should be no real surprise. Saints coach Paul Wellens - Wane’s former England assistant - taking the role of Tonga assistant for the series, didn’t go down too well either. There’s a bit of a backdrop to this too, a feeling at Saints that Wane has always favoured Wigan players in selection, with the continued unavailability of Saints star Jonny Lomax adding fuel to those feelings of a club rivalry overflowing on to the international stage. None of that is particularly helpful, but in truth two of Wane’s key men are Saints greats in Welsby and Makinson so it is hardly a huge issue. But don’t be surprised not to see Lomax play for England again.
A move in the right direction?
Absolutely. Tonga’s shortcomings are not England’s problem and Wane will be buoyed by this series clean sweep of one of the big hitters in international rugby league.
In an ideal world you play Australia or New Zealand every year if you want meaningful progress, but with that unlikely to happen any time soon this was a big step in the right direction.
The public engagement was mixed - BBC viewing figures slightly disappointed against the usual suspects in football and the conclusion of the Rugby Union World Cup, while the middle Test especially gave food for thought with a pretty lacklustre atmosphere in Huddersfield.
But Headingley finished on a high - it always delivers - and it felt like proper Test rugby league again in Leeds. Which is exactly what we have all been craving.
