{"id":625622,"date":"2026-04-23T11:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625622\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:46:08","slug":"new-england-coach-mcdermott-backs-connor-and-criticises-wanes-unfair-treatment-england-rugby-league-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625622\/","title":{"rendered":"New England coach McDermott backs Connor and criticises Wane\u2019s \u2018unfair\u2019 treatment | England rugby league team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian McDermott, the new England head coach, has insisted that Super League\u2019s reigning Man of Steel, Jake Connor, is central to his plans for this year\u2019s World Cup, before appearing to attack the treatment of the Leeds Rhinos half-back by his predecessor Shaun Wane.<\/p>\n

McDermott was unveiled on Thursday as England\u2019s coach on a short-term deal<\/a> for the tournament in Australia this autumn. The former Leeds and London coach is now working in the NRL as an assistant for Gold Coast Titans and saw off competition from Sam Burgess to be named as Wane\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

The buildup to last year\u2019s Ashes, which proved to be Wane\u2019s final series in charge<\/a>, was overshadowed by his decision to omit Connor despite him being crowned Super League\u2019s best player in 2025. Wane insisted that selection was \u201cnot difficult\u201d and insisted he paid no attention to accolades like the Man of Steel, with Connor consistently overlooked to the bemusement of many.<\/p>\n

But McDermott has seemingly confirmed he will include Connor in his World Cup squad this year while also calling out the treatment the 31-year-old received. \u201cYeah, he is [in my plans] for sure,\u201d McDermott said. \u201cAbsolutely. The rhetoric around Jake was tremendously unfair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand where he comes from in that he\u2019s liked by some and disliked by others. That\u2019s the nature of the game. We can sit around the table and debate whether he\u2019s a nice person but that\u2019s not a fair rhetoric to be made public. You can\u2019t argue he\u2019s a fantastic player, he\u2019s a brilliant player \u2013 he\u2019s a game-breaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian McDermott says Jake Connor is \u2018a fantastic player, a brilliant player\u2019. Photograph: Richard Sellers\/PA<\/p>\n

Having been beaten 3-0 in the Ashes<\/a> and with just three training sessions planned together before their opening game of the World Cup against Tonga in October, expectations are unsurprisingly low for England this autumn. But McDermott, Super League\u2019s most successful coach, has a different view.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap is bridgeable but you\u2019ve got to have a plan specific to UK-based players, the level of preparation they\u2019re going to have and our competition,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can win it; absolutely we can win it \u2013 but we have to do some things differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Ashes, we pushed them all the way and they were rattled in parts of games. We just didn\u2019t do it for long enough. We\u2019re going to have to be really well connected and have a bond together. It can\u2019t just be grabbing hold of the badge and shouting aggressively so the optics look good. We\u2019re talking about true connection and a true bond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian McDermott, the new England head coach, has insisted that Super League\u2019s reigning Man of Steel, Jake Connor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-625622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}