{"id":196832,"date":"2025-10-13T10:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196832\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:12:09","slug":"shaun-wane-confirms-first-rugby-league-ashes-squad-member-makes-jake-connor-admission-and-admits-grand-final-changes-selection-slightly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196832\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Wane confirms first rugby league Ashes squad member, makes Jake Connor admission, and admits Grand Final ‘changes selection slightly’"},"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

Shaun Wane will name his rugby league Ashes squad today but he\u2019s already dropped some big hints and confirmed one man\u2019s inclusion.<\/p>\n

That man is recent Rob Burrow award winner Mikey Lewis<\/a> with the Super League Grand Final Man of the Match confirmed to be in Wane\u2019s squad, by Wane himself.<\/p>\n

The England rugby league head coach spoke to the BBC after Saturday\u2019s Grand Final and admitted that Lewis will be one of the 24 players he selects<\/a>, whilst also casting more doubt over the inclusion of Man of Steel Jake Connor.<\/p>\n

Wane explained that personal accolades such as the Man of Steel or Super League Dream Team don\u2019t enter his head when it comes to selection, insisting that he just knows \u2018who the good players are\u2019.<\/p>\n

The England coach explained: \u201cI don\u2019t think about Man of Steel and Dream Team. I don\u2019t know how they pick it and I know people go on about it but it doesn\u2019t my enter my head. I\u2019m a rugby man so I know who plays well when I watch a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Connor, he added: \u201cI know Jake Connor is a good player and Mikey is a great player. Whoever I think can perform against Australia in that first Test will be in that 24 and they will be playing in that first Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dream Team and Man of Steel, I don\u2019t know how they pick it. I don\u2019t know who is in the Dream Team, I just know who the good players are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Final changes England selection, admits Shaun Wane<\/p>\n

Having noted that Mikey Lewis was a \u2018great player\u2019 and noting Jake Connor as a \u2018good player\u2019, that was already a hint on his preference but Wane would then double down further as he assessed Lewis\u2019 Grand Final performance, confirming he\u2019d be in the 24-man squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the back end of the game he was very good, Mikey,\u201d explained Wane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had a quiet start but he was very good today. He scored a try but he\u2019s always been in the squad for me and he\u2019ll be in the squad again. He\u2019s a good player, there\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grand Final proved that Lewis can perform on the big stage and it also saw some stellar performances from a number of other Hull KR players and Wane admitted that his selection might change on the basis of that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit,\u201d he admitted, adding: \u201cI\u2019m going to go home and watch it again but the people I thought would do something, did something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a great game for Hull KR, I thought we (Wigan) were off today but it changes my selection slightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/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":"Shaun Wane will name his rugby league Ashes squad today but he\u2019s already dropped some big hints and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-196832","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\/196832","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=196832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}