Sky Sports presenter Brian Carney has launched a blistering assessment of England’s performances during this autumn’s Ashes – saying they look like they’re ‘trying to solve a problem from a different era’.
England are 2-0 down after spirited but ultimately disappointing defeats in London and Liverpool, in which they have scored just a solitary try against the Kangaroos across 180 minutes of rugby.
Carney, never one to hold back on delivering his opinion, admitted those defeats were ‘damp squibs’ to leave Saturday’s final game at Headingley having all the feel of a friendly match.
He said: “England’s campaign has been defined not by bad luck, not by brave defeats, but by a couple of damp squibs that leave more questions than answers.
“You can talk about effort, heart, and “building towards something” but eventually you must score tries. And across 160 minutes of Ashes rugby league, England have produced precisely one: a Daryl Clark barge-over from dummy half at Wembley when the outcome was already decided.”
But the former Great Britain international did not stop there in his stinging criticism of the hosts’ attacking displays.
Carney said: “England huffed, puffed, and bashed, but the craft, the deception, the subtlety that turns pressure into points were nowhere to be seen. You can’t bludgeon the Kangaroos into submission. You have to outthink them. England, instead, looked like they were still trying to solve a problem from a different era.”
He then turned his attention to the decision to only bring Mikey Lewis on for the final moments of the clash at Everton, with England ten points behind and in need of some attacking spark.
He said: “I don’t know where to start on giving Mikey Lewis 11 minutes. Here’s the ‘explanation’: “That’s enough for Mikey to make an impact. We had it all set up beforehand about what minute he was going to go on and he covers us in quite a few positions but I’m happy with what we did there,” Wane said.
“Got it? Nope, me neither.”
