ENGLAND’S rugby league team has been told to lump its lack of preparation in a World Cup year.
And Shaun Wane will learn if he will coach them Down Under next Autumn in the coming weeks.
The club fixture calendar for 2026 has left the national side – whitewashed 3-0 in the Ashes – with no chance of a training session, let alone a mid-season Test.
Now Abi Ekoku, interim chief executive of the Rugby Football League, has essentially told internationalists ‘tough.’
When asked if it helps or hinders the England team, he replied: “Let me ask the question back in a different way.
“Can England have a meaningful mid-season international if you’re not getting a release of NRL players?
“International sport is a rough, tough environment. What you can offer at the centre as a governing body to players coming from the top clubs is always less than they get at a club.
“Shaun is a fantastic coach and he’s been a very successful Super League coach, but what can he impart in the middle of a season?
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“Getting the players together and having some camaraderie and feelgood factor is great, but to run a physical training session and programme mid-season, when he was head coach at Wigan, I’m not sure that he would’ve been supportive of that.
“And if you’re not playing a fixture, what’s the physiological benefit of it?
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“I’m a massive internationalist in that sense, but there’s got to be a practicality to it as well.
“What rugby union has done with it’s Autumn Internationals is brilliant. It’s lively, it’s vibrant, it’s a really good international series.
“But we’re not rugby union. I’m a realist, I just don’t think it’s worth pandering after something that’s never going to be delivered, because it takes two parties and the NRL will never release their players at any other time of year.
“We might want it, but it’s never going to be a reality.”
The international game was discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the RFL’s council, where changes were made to the IMG grading scheme that decides Super League clubs.
And Ekoku admitted Wane’s feedback will play a part in the decision to keep him or dump him, as well as a call will be quick after everyone has had their say.
He added: “It would be disrespectful to everybody involved in that process not to get their feedback, that comes from Shaun as well as an RFL employee.
“Once that’s all in, that decision will be made. There’ll be no prevarication over it. It’s international sport.
“It means you judge at the highest levels and there shouldn’t be any hesitation. There’s a World Cup next year, so you want certainty as to decision making, so planning can be done.”
