England will never bridge Australia gap while club game dominates: and 14 teams will make it worse

The debrief will start in earnest after the full-time hooter at Headingley next weekend, but given how England are already 2-0 down, it is fair to fire the starting pistol on it already.

12 months out from a Rugby League World Cup, debates aplenty will rage about a plethora of subjects. Is Shaun Wane the right man to lead England into that tournament? Do some of the senior players have the ability to go forward into an overseas World Cup?

They are all valid debates, and things that will need putting under the microscope. But to get to the root of England’s problems, you have to drill deeper and think of a slightly bigger picture.

Talk of England being the sixth best side in the world is churlish nonsense and dominated with recency bias. If your view is skewed a certain way it’s probably easy to forget that England swept Samoa and Tonga aside in the last two years with minimal fuss. Yes, there are better players in those teams now – but they’re not suddenly lightyears ahead of England.

However, the big issue is the one that has always been there: how do England bridge the gap to the one team you really need to beat in Australia? That gap is no closer than it has been at any point in recent history, the first two Ashes Tests have taught us that quite comprehensively.

Changing or fixing one thing in British rugby league will not instantly close the gap, but it might give England a chance when it matters. And it’s hard not to look at the obsession with club rugby league as a primary thing the new regime at the Rugby Football League need to look at if they really want to strengthen the national side.

It seems ridiculous and, quite frankly, ludicrous now to contemplate that prior to getting into camp for this autumn’s series, the last time England were on a field together was 12 months ago in the final Test against Samoa.

Since then, there have been no mid-season games, no warm-up matches for the Ashes and not even a single physical training session together. Wane has been reduced to having ‘off-feet- get-togethers on evenings due to the fact the domestic calendar is simply too congested and clubs can’t let players go for prolonged periods to train.

It’s frankly laughable that England have been handed this level of minimal preparation for the biggest series on these shores in over 20 years, against the world’s best rugby league side. Not a single warm-up game – Wane wanted one, there was no room in the calendar or appetite to make some room – is woeful. Wane will (rightly) get asked questions about the heavy rotation in his spine, but he didn’t even get the chance to try some things out before taking on Australia.

But we are not even giving our national team a chance here, sadly. You’re asking for miracles and in rugby league, they are very short on supply.

But more worrying is that it looks to be the same again over the next year. Wane or whoever is coaching England won’t get the chance to have a mid-season game, he will be limited to off-feet meetings and the level of preparation for the national team will once again be disastrous, all because club land and myopic CEOs and owners rule supreme.

Whether it’s tinkering the domestic schedule, reducing it slightly or something else, until things change at club level, England will have no room to improve. You only have to look at other sports to see how national teams spend so much time together. In rugby league, it is the complete opposite and it’s hindering English rugby league.

Anyone of authority in the game will tell you how there’s a desire to make England as strong as possible: until it comes to actually doing something about it, that is.

But that’s not all.

Wane has frequently mentioned both before and during this season how his players are not exposed to enough Test match standard games in England too, something the Kangaroos players got as a bare minimum with State of Origin, but also with the competition in the NRL.

Where is the evidence to suggest that will change? There’s actually more evidence to suggest things are going to get worse too with the expansion to 14 teams in Super League.

You can argue the positives – and there are plenty – but the negative is the door is ajar for more one-sided games, more routine victories for the elite sides and elite players and less exposure to the standard of rugby Wane, or any England coach for that matter matter, would want to see.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We’ll likely be here again in the same position in 12 months, bemoaning how England are so far behind Australia when it matters.

So isn’t it time to do something about it?