Shaun Wane: A Man Out of Time

 

Out of time and out of luck. 61-year-old Shaun Wane last played Rugby over 30 years ago. His ideas are firmly engraved in a bygone era. The laws change and the way the game is played is totally different from when he played. A motivator, a patriotic man, a loyal man, but also not a man to tussle with. He was never one of the game's great thinkers. When I think of Shaun Wane I think "Hit 'em, Hit 'em hard, Hit 'em down the middle." Five drives and a kick had always done the job for Wigan. 

Australia has always been a hard nut to crack, but trying to bash them into submission was never going to work, and let's face it, we didn't do that very well either. 

Wane's loyalty got him into a lot of trouble during the Ashes series. Sticking to George Williams as his Captain, when his form did not dictate it. Wane contradicted this by saying he was going to pick based on form and then introduced the concept of having credit in the bank when referring to John Bateman.

What is hardest to stomach in all this, is that Wane was employed full-time! Full-time to watch every Wigan game! If Wane thought he could get away with it, every player in the squad would have been a Wigan player or an ex-player. Instead he bottled it and chose players not good enough (Ethan Havard) and dropped genuine international players (Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba).

The latest betting for the next part-time head coach, is like an episode of Hong Kong Phooey, is it

Willie Peters – 2/1 Sam Burgess – 4/1 Paul Rowley – 6/1 Matt Peet – 8/1 Michael Maguire – 14/1 James Graham – 16/1 (mild mannered janitor, could be)