Sam Burgess has been described as the ‘obvious candidate’ to take charge of England by two former NRL stars – with Kangaroos icon Willie Mason insisting he felt there was an element of ‘Wigan bias’ to Shaun Wane’s selections.
The future of Wane is well under debate with the World Cup just a year away and it still eminently possible that the national team may not play another match before their opener in that tournament next year.
Burgess’ name has been floated as an option should the Rugby Football League decide against continuing with Wane – something Mason and his co-host on the Levels Podcast, Justin Horo, discussed this week.
Mason admitted of Wane: “He’s going to be under the pump massively.”
Horo then added: “Yeah, so there’s been a lot of chat in and around Shaun Wane. People have tossed up some names that we’re probably more familiar with like Sam and James Graham and even Wayne (Bennett). I don’t know.
“It depends on.. I think you could coach Super League and then coach a World Cup. If I was to make a change and that’s not even with the relationships that we’ve got with the Burgess boys, but Sam seems like an obvious candidate, doesn’t he?”
Mason insisted he felt Burgess would be ‘perfect’ for England.
He said: “Yeah. And you play for him, right? He’s still, you know.. he’s a Super League coach now. He only retired what, three or four years ago. He’s still current, still relevant.
“They love him. They love playing for him. I think, yeah, someone like that would be perfect.”
Mason then went a step further and admitted he wasn’t impressed with some of Wane’s selections before addressing a suggested bias towards Wigan players.
He said: “I’m not sure where they’re going, but you know, like I think Shaun Wane loves his Wigan sort of connection. You know, you can’t have a coach with kind of biased looks.
“I don’t even know. I don’t know Shaun Wane. I don’t know half the Wigan players but I’m like, it seemed to be leading towards that way.”
Wane is unlikely to find out whether he will continue into 2026 until the start of next season.
