Rugby League World Cup: When Wane met Southgate - watch video

Filmed by the official RLWC2021.com site the conversation explores how the two esteemed coaches came to meet, transitioning from club coach to international coach, and dealing with the pressure ahead of the two major tournaments happening back-to-back this autumn.

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Southgate, who got in contact with Wane after hearing him speak on a podcast, has spoken to his counterpart on Zoom, as well as attending an England Rugby League training session.

During the conversation, he speaks of the challenges both he and Wane will face: “The challenge he has got is incredible – we would complain about how long we have to prepare – but Shaun has got to pull all this together with a really limited preparation time.

“We are similar in terms of going into Qatar – we’ve got just five days with the team before the first game so it's one of the challenges for international sport to get your messages across really quickly and prioritizing the areas you really want to work on.”

Southgate goes on to share his experiences of not only managing England at a major tournament, but also competing on home soil and the unique set of circumstances that brings.

When reminiscing his experience during EURO2020, Southgate said: “In the lead up, you start to talk about the possible disadvantages and the danger is that actually you forget that it’s a great advantage to be at home.

"You can start to put barriers up, but the fact is that you have got your fans, you have familiar surroundings, food, everything else, so sometimes we need to focus on the fact that this is good for us – we’d rather be at home.”

Additionally, Wane talked passionately about the Rugby League World Cup’s aim of being the most inclusive international tournament of all time.

When asked about the wider social impact that the tournament may have on the nation, and rugby league, Wane replied: “Every day is a learning day so for us to be involved in something like this and having more kids playing any sport – girls, boys, able bodied, non-able bodied – if they get out to play, I know what’s it like and Gareth will agree that the feeling of building friendships – you don’t have to be a professional sports person to make friends for life – that’s why this is such an important project.”

The two head coaches sat down at The Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation multi-sport launch, which announced that by 2025, the charity plan to commit 40% of its investment, worth a projected £92 million into multi-sport projects that support both football and an additional sport, such as rugby, cricket, netball, and basketball.

The Rugby League World Cup is the pinnacle major event of rugby league, globally contested every four years. RLWC2021 will be a breakthrough moment in the tournament’s history with the men’s, women’s and wheelchair competitions being staged together for the first time.

The three tournaments will take place across 21 venues throughout England. Both the women’s and wheelchair competitions will be contested by two groups of four teams, whilst the men’s tournament will see 16 teams compete across four groups.

RLWC2021 will be the most visible rugby league event in history with all 61 games in the men’s, women’s and wheelchair competitions being broadcast live on the BBC.

For full ticketing details visit rlwc2021.com/tickets