Shaun Wane lays down two England improvements as Mikey Lewis admission made

Shaun Wane may be delighted after a sixth England Test win in a row, but the focus is still on improvement.

Defeating Samoa 34-18 in Wigan, Wane got the perfect start to the series in his hometown. However, there’s no room for complacency, just determined focus on how his England side can get better to trouble the likes of Australia, who they are set to face in the Ashes next year.

Following a series whitewash over Tonga on home soil last year, England were too good for Samoa, with a Matty Ashton brace joined by tries for Herbie Farnworth, George Williams, Victor Radley, and Mikey Lewis. It was the least Wane’s outfit deserved, who started the stronger and played at a pace Samoa, at least in the first half, couldn’t live with.

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"I am very pleased," Wane said post-match. "It was a Test match against a very good team. There are things we need to improve and will improve, but overall, beating a team like Samoa, we have to be happy with that."

He continued: "We know we need to be better. That performance wouldn’t trouble Australia. We know what we need to fix as a group, staff, and players. It sounds weird after a result like this, and I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way to Samoa, but we need to be better. They’ll say the same too. We’re looking at how we can improve.

"For us, it’s our completion and the way we ended our sets. There were a few errors with the ball, but that’s stuff we can easily fix; it’s things we are in control of. A lot of things worked for us in the first half, and we went away from that, but I knew things wouldn’t all go our way. There’s too much talent in their team for that."

Ready for battle again at Headingley next week, Wane’s side will look to wrap up the series, but they know they can’t take anything for granted against a talented opponent.

"It would mean everything to get that win, but we’ve got a team absolutely desperate to make sure that doesn’t happen," Wane explained. "We have to go in confident, but still give them the respect they deserve."

The England head coach also explained his decision to start Harry Smith over Mikey Lewis, with the former’s left foot kicking game preferred.

"Mikey is a fantastic player," Wane added. “He can play full-back, he can play six, seven, and nine. He’s very versatile, but Harry has a really good left boot, and against Tonga last year, Harry was great. He won us the series with his boot."

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