Emotional Shaun Wane magnanimous in defeat as England bow out of World Cup
England coach Shaun Wane was visibly upset in his post-match press conference after his side bowed out of the World Cup in the semi-finals.
England went down to a 27-26 defeat against Samoa in front of 40,00o fans at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Wane, a proud Englishman, praised Samoa for being the better team in what was an emotional press conference.
“They were the better team,” Wane said. “Credit to our players for what we’ve done in this tournament, it’s been outstanding what we’ve delivered and we’ve just not done them small details today. It cost us dearly.
“They had better composure. They were the best team. I will have a good look at what I’ve done this week. It just wasn’t good enough today on the biggest stage you can imagine.”
Shaun Wane: They were better
He added: We needed a bit more composure, we needed to do things what worked for us. We needed to do things consistently and we waved from that a bit, and that’s down to me and the staff and how we compiled our week this week.
“The first people we will look at is ourselves. We’ve got an honest group of players and we will get in this position again and we will be better next time.
“I knew it would be a different challenge with Samoa today. They have too many good players and they proved that today. They were better and the coaches were better.
“I can’t for one minute doubt my players’ effort, they tried hard and they are absolutely devastated, as is every member of staff but to make any excuses would be unfair to Samoa. They were better than us today.”
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