ENGLAND coach Shaun Wane believes Super League clubs - including world champions Wigan - would be more than willing to take on the Kangaroos next year, amping up the nostalgia quotient for rugby league’s latest brash event proposal.
Wane said he knew nothing about the push to switch the 2025 Ashes from Australia to Britain until Monday morning, half a day after news broke in Sydney following England’s 34-18 win over Samoa at Brick Community Stadium.
“I don’t like that,” he said, in reference to being in the dark on the issue.
But the 60-year-old welcomed the development enthusiastically nonetheless when he fronted the media at Headingley Stadium, where the second and final Test against Samoa will be held this Saturday.
Great Britain v Australia - Second Ashes Test, 1990
“Oh yeah, I love that - full house, great atmosphere,” he said.
“My memories of playing Australia at the DW (Stadium), [Adrian] Morley and all that ….” at which point Wane raised his forearm to reporters in reference to Morley's 2003 send-off after 12 seconds. “... electric atmosphere, I want to be part of that.”
British officials have confirmed they were keen for the Kangaroos to tour at the end of next season, rather than England travel to Australia for the Ashes series, as scheduled.
"Rugby League Commercial can confirm initial conversations have been held with the ARLC about the possibility of an historic Ashes Series being played in England in 2025," a statement said.
"We are excited by the possibility of bringing the Kangaroos to these shores for a three-match series for the first time in over 20 years, and we are starting work on the feasibility of such a tour.
"We believe this would be welcomed by our England team, by British Rugby League supporters, by the British sporting public, and by the current generation of Australia players, who would relish the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of so many great players of the past."
Great Britain v Australia: First Ashes Test, 1994
Rugby League Commercial said on Tuesday it was in extended talks with prospective venues as excitement among British fans on social media bubbled over with countless surveys and debates emerging about Test venues.
The return of the Kangaroos after 22 years is a story to rival even the controversial IMG gradings and end of pure promotional and relegation in the domestic leagues.
With player welfare a significant factor in 2024, no-one is expecting a return to the last full Kangaroo Tour in 1994, which featured 18 games in Britain and France.
The most recent tour, in 2003, comprised six - three Tests against Great Britain, an international with Wales and tour matches with a French XIII and England A.
But according to early expectations and reports, if next year’s tour goes ahead it would be more akin to the September 11-affected 2001 visit - just the three Anglo-Australian Tests.
Wane said it didn’t have to be that way, theorising: “On squad numbers, you can play midweek games as long as you squad numbers are good”.
Leeds played New Zealand as recently as before the 2022 World Cup and when Wane was asked if clubs would be willing to take on the Kangaroos, in apparent reference to Wigan he said: “I think we would. I think we’d have to be available and up for that".
“I’m not sure about the chairman and CEO but I think we need to make it fit, we need to make a calendar around that," Wane continued.
“The international game is so important … if people want to make it a midweek game … we have to make it fit."
Asked to explain the significance of an Ashes series to the health of the game in Britain, Wane said: “It’s so important.
“I know New Zealand are a good team and they might have beaten Australia the last few years, but the NRL and Australian rugby league is the pinnacle … they’ve played the best rugby [league] over the past few decades.
“So that’s how me as a coach, I want to pit myself against Mal Meninga and the Australian team. Can we do it? We’ve never done anything as big as that. That’s why I took this job.
David Morrow in the Kangaroos sheds
“So, for me personally, it would be the pinnacle of my career to get the chance to coach against them.”
Wane was also enthusiastic in backing Great Britain to take on the Kangaroos instead of England - but officials quickly quashed this concept.
The Lions had been under consideration to tour Australia in 2025, but it had been deemed too late to do this properly, with all Home Nations fairly represented, after the winless 2019 GB tour.
There had never been any consideration of GB playing a home series, officials said in backgrounding reporters.
