Under-fire England coach Shaun Wane defiant over future after Ashes whitewash
Shaun Wane has declared himself the right man to lead England into next year's World Cup despite overseeing a series whitewash against Australia.
The home side were hoping to restore lost pride at Headingley on Saturday but instead slumped to a 30-8 defeat, piling pressure on Wane at the end of a torturous series.
Australia were far from their best across the three Tests, yet still coasted to victory against the one-dimensional hosts.
Wane issued a firm response when questioned about his future.
When asked if he believed he was still the man for the job, the former Wigan Warriors boss replied: "I don't believe – I know I am.
"The only people who I want backing me are the players and the staff and I know I've got that."
Wane's confidence was backed up by England captain George Williams, whose try on the half-hour on the end of a brilliant run and kick from Jez Litten had briefly given his side hope of mounting a stirring comeback.
"No doubt at all," said Williams. "We all believe in him 100 per cent.
"What we've built in this series has been really good and Shaun is definitely the right man.
"As players, we're just looking at ourselves really. We really believed we could do something special in this series and it finished 3-0 which is a bit embarrassing."
Wane, who has been in charge since 2020, is contracted for the World Cup Down Under but must now deal with the fallout of a damaging defeat.
The 61-year-old concedes that England fell short of the required standard against the world's best.
"The talks aren't planned yet but they will happen," he added. "We'll do a report on the series and what we think we need to make it better.
"I need to have a conversation with the RFL in the next few weeks about the direction we're going in. I'll make recommendations to give us a chance to have these players prepared for a World Cup and we'll take it from there.
"We've not played well enough for long enough periods against a really good team. This is a different challenge against a team that's going to ask you questions. We couldn't do it for long enough periods."