Shaun Wane takes first England session

Josh McAllister

Head coach Shaun Wane took charge of his first England training session on Tuesday afternoon at Leeds Beckett University.

Earlier this month, Wane confirmed an unchanged 35-man squad for England, and most recently added quartet Matty English, Jake Wardle, Mikolaj Oledzki and Kruise Leeming, who all took part in this week’s training.

2020 Steve Prescott Man of Steel winner and Castleford hooker Paul McShane was a part of the training squad, he said: “A good first get together. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in one and I’ve really enjoyed it.

“Seeing a different coach’s point of view of the game and stuff like that and how they go about stuff is good and it’s something I’ll be looking to take back to my club.

“Everything we worked on today is something I need to add to my game if I want to be there at the end of the year. A lot to learn and it’s enjoyable.”

Warrington’s Joe Philbin was also named in the squad, who most recently featured for Great Britain in the 2019 tour Down Under.

He said: “Obviously it was the first time we’ve trained under Shaun and it was good to see his philosophies.

“We’ve done a lot of stuff on zoom with him but nothing beats getting out onto the field and actually seeing what he wants you to do.

“He kept it fairly basic but very enjoyable and I learned quite a lot from him in that first session.

“He’s really big on the small things or what people think are the small things but the small things are actually the big things and he gets the message across really well.

“He demands excellence on all the little things, that’s what his message was.

“It’s up to us to deliver that to stay in this squad because, if you don’t, there are other players that will. We are all competing against each other.”

Wane will take charge of his first fixture in June as England face Combined Nations All Stars at Warrington’s Halliwell Jones Stadium.

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