{"id":226509,"date":"2025-10-26T13:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226509\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:24:09","slug":"aussie-media-call-for-full-scale-overhaul-as-england-spine-options-suggested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226509\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie media call for \u2018full scale overhaul\u2019 as England spine options suggested"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

England head coach Shaun Wane has been encouraged to make key changes to his spine if they\u2019re to avoid losing the Ashes in the second Test at Everton.<\/p>\n

With Australia having taken a 1-0 lead by winning the Ashes opener 26-6 at Wembley<\/a>, England must avoid defeat to give themselves a chance going into the final Test at Headingley.<\/p>\n

Saying that and doing that are two very different things with England looking a good few gears behind Australia, who didn\u2019t really seem to ever take it out of second gear.<\/p>\n

NRL voices question refereeing performance in first Ashes Test<\/a><\/p>\n

In Reece Walsh, they have arguably the most in-form player in the world<\/a> and he showed that as he tore Shaun Wane\u2019s side apart with England having no answer to him, and no one who could do similar damage to the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

That has seen widescale calls for NRL playmaker AJ Brimson<\/a> to feature, either at full-back or in the halves, and the NRL media are making the same suggestion as well.<\/p>\n

What changes do England need to make to beat Australia?<\/p>\n

Fox Sports\u2019<\/a> Andrew Voss and Greg Alexander debated where he could play with Voss not advocating for a change in the halves, but Alexander insisting that Brimson must play, even if as a 14.<\/p>\n

Former England international Josh Hodgson argued that more players with experience against Australians should have been selected, as he claimed that Luke Thompson could have featured.<\/p>\n

On that basis, Michael Ennis agreed: \u201cGeorge Williams was their best today, he\u2019s played against these blokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like Welsby and Lewis just sat back a fraction today. At least Brimson plays against these blokes every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got Williams creating those half chances, well AJ can turn half chances into points pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, either Mikey Lewis needs to start taking the line on more or Brimson assume that role but for Matty Johns, a change at full-back is needed and it\u2019s not Brimson replacing Welsby.<\/p>\n

Explaining that England are \u2018not good at advancing the ball sideways\u2019, he called for Herbie Farnworth to shift to full-back and help lead a middle of the field assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be going Herbie to fullback, I\u2019d be bringing AJ into the side and finding a way,\u201d Johns argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just do a middle third assault, beat Australia right through the middle. Get guys like Dom Young in the middle of the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaun Wane has plenty of options but he has just a week to work out the formula for his side to either win or at least avoid defeat and give themselves a chance at Headingley.<\/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":"England head coach Shaun Wane has been encouraged to make key changes to his spine if they\u2019re to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-226509","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\/226509","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=226509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}