{"id":122550,"date":"2025-09-08T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122550\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:10:09","slug":"shaun-wane-defends-controversial-rugby-league-ashes-selection-as-positive-update-shared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122550\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Wane defends controversial rugby league Ashes selection as positive update shared"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"England\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

England rugby league head coach Shaun Wane has spoken ahead of next month\u2019s Ashes series against Australia offering a key update and also defending one of the selections he made in his mid-season squad.<\/p>\n

Wane named a 30-man training squad in late June<\/a> with plenty of choices debated, including the decision not to select Man of Steel front-runner Jake Connor.<\/p>\n

As well as Connor\u2019s snub, there were also questions over Warrington Wolves winger Matty Ashton being included with the speedster having previously been ruled out for the season.<\/p>\n

After Wire\u2019s Challenge Cup semi-final win over Leigh in May, it was confirmed that Ashton\u2019s season was over with the winger suffering ACL and MCL injuries<\/a>, both of which are expected to see him recovering into early next year.<\/p>\n

It was therefore understandable why Ashton\u2019s inclusion was questioned given the fact he wouldn\u2019t be able to play in the Ashes but Shaun Wane how now defended that selection in comments made on the governing body\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Matty Ashton selection defended by England head coach<\/p>\n

Outlining his Ashes expectations on the Rugby Football League site<\/a>, Wane spoke about a number of backs with injury concerns including Jack Welby, Herbie Farnworth and Ashton.<\/p>\n

Welsby has returned whilst Farnworth (hamstring) is chasing a return for the NRL play-offs but Wane insists that the Dolphins centre will be \u201cback in no time\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for Ashton, he said: \u201cMatty [Ashton] has a lot of credits from me. He\u2019s done a lot of good things in many, many games for England. The lads love having him around. If there\u2019s a chance he can be fit, I want to keep him involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always speaks up in meetings and he\u2019ll always be in my squad. I love him to pieces and I think it\u2019s very wrong for people to question him being in our squad. There\u2019s private reasons why he\u2019s in \u2013 and that\u2019s the reason why Matty\u2019s so important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashton would have almost certainly been a starting winger and his injury has created an interesting race for that vacant position with Joe Burgess, Tom Davies, Lewis Martin and Liam Marshall all in contention, as well as NRL star Dom Young.<\/p>\n

Shaun Wane speaks on challenges of rugby league Ashes<\/p>\n

Having previously noted that his England side will have to be on top form and playing some of their best rugby to beat the Australians, Wane spoke on the performances of players of late in Super League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a lot better,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performances of the players have been a lot closer to an England standard. I\u2019ve let the players know that \u2013 they all understand where they\u2019re at, but we can be better. But what I\u2019ve seen over the last few weeks has been satisfying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to stand out. There are certain things they need to do that are of an England standard. This test series against Australia is going to be very difficult to Tonga and Samoa. There\u2019s different challenges and we\u2019re aware of them. I just need a more consistent performance and lots of good things for long periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England rugby league head coach Shaun Wane has spoken ahead of next month\u2019s Ashes series against Australia offering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-122550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}