{"id":625941,"date":"2026-06-07T12:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625941\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T12:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:17:11","slug":"england-boss-brian-mcdermott-reflects-on-predecessor-shaun-wane-as-timeline-for-player-conversations-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625941\/","title":{"rendered":"England boss Brian McDermott reflects on predecessor Shaun Wane as timeline for player conversations revealed"},"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

Brian McDermott has not yet had a chance to speak to any of his England players, despite being just four months out from the Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n

McDermott was appointed to the role in April, after being the successful candidate out of five to replace Shaun Wane.<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast Titans assistant boss believes he has formulated a unique plan to overcome the likes of Australia and New Zealand, something his predecessors before him could not achieve, especially at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The ex-Leeds Rhinos head coach will have to pick a squad of around 24 players to take with him to this year\u2019s tournament, however he has recently revealed that no conversations have been had with any potential squad member.<\/p>\n

McDermott, in an interview with England legend James Graham, has revealed that he thinks it is \u201ctoo early\u201d to speak with them now, given that there is still over half a season left of the regular campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith about 16 weeks to go, I\u2019ll make contact with the players,\u201d he confirmed on Graham\u2019s The Bye Round podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a pretty comprehensive preparation plan for them, and that will involve them reflecting on their games and reporting back to us about how they\u2019ve gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing intrusive, and it won\u2019t be contradictory to what they\u2019re doing at club level, but there are some things that I\u2019ll be asking them to do to consider for England at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have some reps, whether in training or in games, about what you\u2019re seeing and how you go about things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be holding several calls through the year with pockets of players, the outside backs, the spine players, the forwards, and trying to get as much understanding as we can before we all land in Australia together in Perth.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDermott\u2019s coaching staff has not yet been revealed, with that said to be one of the top priorities on his agenda after originally getting the role.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s squad selection looks to be an open field, with very few names in the side nailed on at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you and I put a team down on paper of who we think is going to play, we\u2019d maybe have seven, eight or nine players that we\u2019d both agree on. They\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another few that I\u2019m not sure just yet, we\u2019re in May [at the time of recording], and then the wider squad. Everyone on tour adds to it, and we need that competition. We\u2019ve got to get those right as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The England boss is not afraid to call up younger and perhaps less experienced players to his side, whilst his stance on foreign-born heritage players<\/a> has already been made abundantly clear.<\/p>\n

England boss Brian McDermott reflects on Ashes series and Shaun Wane<\/p>\n

McDermott has landed the role following the exit of Shaun Wane, who held the position for just short of six years, however it ended poorly with England only being able to score two tries in three Ashes Test defeats to Australia.<\/p>\n

The new boss looked back on that series and Wane as a boss, and said that whilst there were some positives, perhaps Wane\u2019s style of coaching became \u201coverwhelming\u201d for some players.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI reckon what we did well last year is probably what we always did well, being up for the battle and up for the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think passion or being up for the fight is going to be an issue\u2026 we\u2019ve got to make sure we do something with a point of difference to be able to compete with a team that is coming out of the NRL, that uses certain tools and systems on an elite level most weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven your teams at the bottom end of the ladder are athletes, and they have the understanding to make every game a battle, regardless of scoreline. I don\u2019t think that goes on in Super League.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting on his predecessor, McDermott added: \u201cShaun Wane did a fantastic job in terms of motivating his players to play for the shirt, and that\u2019s a big part of the DNA of Shaun \u2013 the passion that they showed \u2013 but I think sometimes that passion was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came out at Wembley, and it was almost like a damp squib of a game. It wasn\u2019t that they weren\u2019t motivated, but sometimes the task just overwhelms you.\u201d<\/p>\n

England lost the first Test 26-6, before losing out 14-4 and 30-8 at Everton and Headingley respectively.<\/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":"Brian McDermott has not yet had a chance to speak to any of his England players, despite being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-625941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625941","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=625941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}