Wane optimistic
SHAUN Wane believes his England side is even better than the team that bulldozed semi-final rivals Samoa in the opening match of the Rugby League World Cup.
Wane’s hosts started that match in Newcastle as bookies’ outsiders, with Samoa including eight NRL Grand Finalists in their powerful squad.
But England produced a dominant display to secure a 60-6 victory, which they’ve followed with similarly convincing wins over France, Greece and Papua New Guinea.
“I think we are stronger than when we played Samoa, we are doing things better, I’m happy but I will never be satisfied with how we are playing,” said Wane.
“There are always ways of improving and I still think we can get better on the performance last week against Papua New Guinea. I know we will improve and we need to improve too.”
However, Matt Parish’s Samoa squad show little resemblance to the team that arrived at St James’ Park after just two practice sessions and no warmup fixture.
They’ve got stronger in each match since and have faced the toughest examination of any final four team, their narrow quarter-final win over Polynesian rivals Tonga an instant Rugby League World Cup classic in Warrington.
In teenager Joseph Suaali’i they boast a once in a generation sort of player, while captain Junior Paulo has been cleared to line up by the tribunal after initially picking up a one match suspension — which a bullish Wane even claims he welcomes.
“I’m glad he is in the team,” he said.
“He is a good player, and he is going to make it a tougher competition on Saturday, and he is going to challenge us and we are going to challenge him. They are at full strength and that’s great for rugby league.
“We’ve genuinely never mentioned that first game against Samoa. We know that this team we will play on Saturday is a different team.” ■
This is the furthest any Samoa side has gone, and it was good to do it against our Polynesian
brothers.
– Jarome Luai