Rising from the Ashes - A Wigan Fans Perspective on the Ashes Series and the Future

Written by Super League Raw Member - Craig Forth

Well. That's the Ashes over and done with and what have we learnt?

Players playing on form should be picked for the national team over tried and tested?

Australia just far too good?

England just not good enough?

Pick players that play together?

All of the above?

None of the above?

What we know is that Australia are just of a different level, and game one showed this, but despite the results, lets give our gladiators the credit they deserve. They knew the odds where against them going into the game, but they answered the call and donned the jersey. They went up against the best and gave the best performances they could from a squad that was only announced a week or two before the series began. A squad that have only had a couple of meetings prior to the start of the series and spent the better part of 30 previous weeks playing against each other and only one week playing together to learn a cohesion style, and in some cases not playing in their regular position. Don’t get me wrong, Australia had some of the same problems, but theres differences between European Rugby League and Australian Rugby League. Yes the NRL is more polished and has more funds. Yes it’s played faster to our more strategic, slower style and England are always going to struggle to keep up. But there is enough talent in our teams to be able to beat Australia. Don’t forget, Super League have beaten the NRL in the last two consecutive World Club Challenges, with English coaches and predominantly British players, and rarely are these games blow outs, even when the NRL have taken the crown. So we can compete with Australia. Game two England showed that this as England were vastly improved, but just lacked something in attack to score a try. Game three also showed large moments of control and dominance, but then we looked tired towards the end, allowing Australia to score in what upon reflection became an unjust score line. What we need to do now is look at how we can improve and what we need to do. So what options do we have?

Firstly we need more experience playing together as a unit. So, more international fixtures throughout the year to get us ready for the Autumn internationals. This is something that we need to look into as, as it stands right now, we currently do not have any England fixtures scheduled for next year before the world cup. But is this too simple a solution? England are the strongest team in the northern hemisphere. Its not as if we can hop on a two hour flight and play a strong team that will give us a game and test us. The other code are lucky in this sense. The 6 Nations brings six of the best teams in Europe together every year for an annual tournament which tests each other. If England first team wanted to have a 6 Nations with the same opposition, it would be nothing more than a training exercise for too many years, which by the time that the likes of Wales, Scotland and Ireland (which are more heavy into the other code) catch on, interest would have evaporated faster than a thimble of water in a kettle. So then we are looking at the Pacific Islands, or Australia, or New Zealand. This is great in principle, but then you are asking NRL clubs to release their players mid season to come and play a test series in England, or Super League clubs to release their players mid season for four to potentially six weeks or so to play in the South Pacific/Australasia. I think you can guess what the coaches of these players would say to that! Would there even be the appetite for it from these countries to play us? This has been muted around England becoming part of a six nations for an Autumn test series, in a four year cycle. This is great in principal and I wouldn’t sniff at that, however this again doesn’t resolve the issue of England only playing in the autumn, meaning England's improvement will be slow if we don’t get more games in the mid season to develop.

Do we remove the quota allowance and allow an unlimited number of NRL players to come into Super League, as well as more NRL coaches, to bring in the NRL style so we get used to playing their game. That's a shout. Play their way and beat them at it. Great in principal. But then there comes the other potential issue. This can be detrimental to the development of British coaches and players as we rely more heavily on over seas signings, especially if a team is struggling and then they look to buy abroad, rather than develop their own youngsters and risks more financial problems for teams buying their way to success. So what would happen without the quota is that we don’t filter in over seas players, we end up filtering in home grown players. So we may eventually get an England team that can compete, but this could be years down the line, then like the Rugby League European 6 nations idea, we have no appetite for international Rugby League anymore.

So. What do we do? What do the NRL do differently and how do they play together so well? Picking players that have cohesion and synergy? This would be a great idea, but then doing that, we could have had for example, Burgess and Gildart, with Bachelor and Lewis covering one side, with Smith, Nsemba, Wardle and Marshall covering the other. Now this would work as we have centre/wing combinations, supported by a half back and second row that play together week in, week out and know each others strengths and weaknesses, know what their team mates are going to do and hit the ground running. But that means that the majority of our backs have come from two teams, and would they all have been the best players for the job? After all, its easier to bring players from two teams together as a cohesive unit than it is to bring in from 10 or more. But, if the coach did this, would we be criticising him for only picking from a total of three or four clubs for the starting line up, and not necessarily picking players who have been the best in their position all year. So do we give a dispensation to some clubs to allow them to buy more English players and play them in position, identifying these and allowing them to go to one team? That places all our eggs in one basket and then there is severe criticism of one team getting more preferential treatment for the England line up. So thats a none starter.

The most glaring difference between Super League and NRL is State of Origin. State of Origin is massive and people watch it from all over the Rugby League supporting world, is one of the most watched sporting events in Australia, right up there with the NRL Grand Final. So lets be fair, when your one of, if not the, top sports in sporting country like Australia, your bound to be able to perform. The best players from Queensland and New South Wales play each other over a three game series and earn the right to represent where they come from and then their country. They also have the indigenous representation games so now instead of picking from multiple teams, the Australian national team is (in essence) picked from two, New South Wales and Queensland. They’ve played together and trained together, so this allows the international coach to pick players from fewer clubs without favouritism as they are picking from Origin teams.

So its simple then. We need our own State of Origin. Yorkshire V Lancashire. Wars of the Roses. This is something that has been mentioned a lot recently, with Dave Cain championing the idea of the winning captain raising the flag over the Pennines as a marketing gimmick, which lets be fair is a great idea. Without sounding detrimental to the sport, I only have one reservation about a Wars of the Roses however. How do we sell Yorkshire V Lancashire outside of the Rugby League heartlands? The State of Origin in Australia works because Rugby League is one of their top sports. The best teams from the most densely populated areas of Australia send their best players. In a country that loves Rugby League, its an easy sell. Here in Britain, different story. I was personally shocked that Wigan Warriors won Sports Personality Team of the Year in 2024, only being the second, maybe third time, a rugby league team has done that, after winning an unprecedented quadruple (not sure if any Wigan fans mentioned it!). Hull KR won the treble in 2025, winning their first trophy in 40 years, a truly historic moment for the club, and the first new name on the trophy since Leeds Rhinos took the title in 2004, 21 years ago. Barely made a a murmur on national news and social media unless you follow Rugby League. So here’s the problem. To grow our game to the levels we need it to be, we need to get the capital cities involved. Yes a successful London team will help, but that could years away, if at all. We need to give the youngsters who live in London, Cornwall, Wales, Lincolnshire, Scotland, Ireland etc something for them to achieve and they can play in the biggest game of the season. So we need to find a way to involve them. So, I’m not dismissing Yorkshire V Lancashire by the way, but I believe we need to expand it. And here’s my plan. East’s V West’s.

Who or what is East’s V West’s I hear you say. Here’s the plan. Using the Pennines as the divide, East’s would consist of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Newcastle and so on. Pick a colour, could be white if they wanted to keep the same scheme as Yorkshire for a bit of heritage. West’s would be Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester, Wales, Cornwall, Glasgow, Ireland, Oxfordshire, Birmingham etc and for heritage, say play in Red. This engulfs the whole country and anyone can play in a representative team. Suddenly a player from London, or Ireland etc can represent their side. This encourages more growth as more players can be eligible, can have something to aim for, and (more importantly) gives better competition for places. But also, this means that the capital cities are all represented as well, which means that they can take a share in glory of victory, and makes the sport more interesting to these locations.

So, we have two games played in the heartlands. This would be in one of the current Super League home grounds, one in the Yorkshire teams, and one in Lancashire teams home. This builds on the tradition of the Wars of the Roses and becomes something of point of interest to new fans and helps establish some new traditions for the sport. Where could we play the third fixture? This is where the East’s V West’s concept gets interesting. The third game can go on tour. This game could be moved (alternatively between East and West territory) around the country to grow and expand interest in the game. This means, a match could be in London one year, Cardiff the next, before Rugby League heads back to Newcastle and then on to Birmingham. Dublin weekender anyone? Edinburgh in summer? If it gets big enough, why not Paris, Barcelona or Rome. Viva Las Vegas for a season opener? Its from these games that our players can learn to play together, build team spirit and then put themselves in the shop window for international call ups in the Autumn to take on the likes of the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Like State of Origin, these games could be played mid-week (where applicable) so as not to over extend the season, and allows clubs to bleed more younger players in to their squads, enhancing youth development, whilst some of the more senior players are on representation duty and training sessions.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t something that would work over night. It would need to be invested in for a minimum of 10 years. This allows the idea to bed in, to get more media coverage, to have years of raising the flag over the Pennines (even if its symbolically in the  stadium after game three before someone goes and raises the flag for real afterwards), to grow the interest across the land and get the fans behind their side.

But that's not all. We need to grow the game from the grass roots up. Whilst I said earlier a 6 Nations Rugby League wouldn’t attract attention, but what about academy level 4 Nations? The best and brightest youngsters can have a tournament throughout the season to develop future national teams and help grow the game in Scotland, Ireland and Wales and start to make us competitive against the other code and attract some new talent to come over. This season, we have seen academy teams showcase some great talent. I had the pleasure of watching the Academy Yorkshire v Lancashire game at Craven Park, the fire and determination in these young players was great to see and this would only be amplified if they could represent their countries. Warrington Academy has shined in a season where their first team has floundered. And lets not forget the Women’s game. A 4 Nations Women’s tournament can help grow the Women’s game and give the national team something that they will be lacking in after the Vegas match, and thats confidence.

East’s V West’s and the Academy and Women’s 4 Nations’. These three are my suggestions that could lead to bigger and better things for our international game, as well as realistic growth covering all four corners of the United Kingdom and Ireland to attract attention to our great game, plus we would get an extra 15 games in our season! Many may disagree with what I’m suggesting, and I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination that what I’m saying is the answer and could fall flat, but we need to be bold and brave. We need to develop the game and developing the game doesn’t mean standing still to grow the game in our back yard and hopefully become the spark that ignites a fire of interest in Rugby League across the country, that gets kids wanting to play it outside of the heartlands and get more people following the current teams, or founding new ones. Some say the definition of insanity is doing the same process and expecting a different result!

So, how do we solve the problem of England? New coach? Don’t change anything and hope for the best? Lets be honest, we have had England Rugby League for over 10 years now and we have not seen any real development in the international game here and in the other home nations. So now as we rise out of the ashes of The Ashes series, and maybe after the next World Cup is a memory, maybe its time to wake a beast that has remained long dormant and ready to roar. Time to unite the nations of our Isles back into a dominant force. Maybe its time for the return of Great Britain?”

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