It is never a good sign when a head coach describes an international fixture involving his team as “torture”.
Shaun Wane was clearly hurting after watching his England side suffer a comprehensive 26-6 defeat by Australia at Wembley in the first Ashes match for 22 years.
In truth, it could have been a lot worse. Australia started slowly and led by only eight points at half-time but eased clear in the second half while England wasted chances and made simple mistakes.
Australia will retain the Ashes if they beat England at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool next weekend – and they are not out of second gear yet.
“They are very disappointed in the dressing room,” Wane told his post-match media conference of his players. “I really wanted to see the best of our players, but we undersold ourselves today. That’s torture for me.”
The gap in quality between the sides was illustrated by the first actions of the respective full-backs in the second half.
Reece Walsh, who was player of the match, carried the ball 80 metres following a slip by England’s much-vaunted scrum-half Mikey Lewis. While England resisted the initial thrust, the ground gained provided the platform for Australia to score a killer second try of the match.
“Reece Walsh has saved two tries and he has scored two,” former England forward James Graham told BBC One. “Let’s not forget that break he made at the beginning of the second half, which set the tone.”
The try resulting from that break was scored by second row Angus Crichton, who evaded England full back Jack Welsby to score.
In contrast to the forward-thinking Walsh, Welsby was caught out. He backed off Crichton until his heels were on the try line; when he made a limp attempt to tackle his man, it was far too late.
That is what tortured Wane the most – not being outclassed by the world number one international side and clear favourites for this series, but being outfought.
“I know what these players are capable of, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win,” he said. “It hurts a lot; we didn’t put our best show on today. What we did wrong are easy fixes.
“They outplayed and outkicked us. It is easy to fix but has a knock-on effect. It was simple rugby; we did not nail the details.”
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