Wayne Bennett got it wrong by ignoring this man at full-back, and it cost England the Rugby League World Cup – Adrian Durham verdict

1 Jamie Shaul

England lost the World Cup final before the Super League season ended, not on Saturday in Brisbane.

Throughout the tournament Down Under, Wayne Bennett’s side had been making errors, and making poor decisions near their opponent’s line.

And the final against Australia was no different. So what went wrong?

Some experienced ex-pros and coaches – notably Paul Cooke and Garry Schofield – have made it clear England do not have the creative half-backs needed to compete at the top level. But I think we do have one – and that man is Gareth Widdop.

He turned out to be arguably England’s player of the tournament, but he was playing at full-back, not at 6, where he belongs.

England’s full-back should have been Zak Hardaker, but the Castleford man let his country down by getting himself banned before the Grand Final.

So Bennett faced a full-back selection problem. His answer was to pick Johnny Lomax of St Helens, with Warrington’s Stefan Ratchford, no more than a competent utility player, as back-up. And Bennett was undone. Lomax was not great, Ratchford was not trusted, so the decision to sledgehammer the halves to move Widdop to full-back helped contribute to England’s downfall. No hindsight needed – it was a shockingly poor decision and one I believe cost England a chance of World Cup glory.

What were Wayne’s alternatives? Hardaker’s ban wasn’t Bennett’s fault so I have some sympathy. But, once that ban had been confirmed, the important thing was to make a smart decision in the circumstances. Bennett didn’t do that.

Jamie Shaul has been Hull FC’s full-back for a couple of seasons now and, in that time, Hull have challenged at the top end, and more significantly, have won back-to-back Challenge Cup finals. Remember, England were trying to win a cup. So while Luke Gale was selected at 7 – despite flopping on the big stage in a Challenge Cup quarter final and a Grand Final – Shaul was ignored completely, even though he has proved he has the game and the mentality to step up and perform at the right moment. Shaul even scored the winning try in the 2016 Challenge Cup final. He joined the line at the right time, found the space and, rather than just going over, he also planted it between the posts.

The only reason Shaul didn’t go to the World Cup must be because Bennett didn’t fancy him. That’s the coach’s prerogative of course. But Bennett failed, and his team failed to even get on the scoreboard in the final, so mistakes were made. I believe this was one of them. Listen, I’m not stupid, I don’t think Shaul is some kind of world class superstar. But if you think about the situation England were in at full-back, it’s a joke he wasn’t considered.

I take you back to a massive Good Friday game in 2016 when Hull were 20-0 down in the derby at Rovers and Lee Radford’s job was on the line. Shaul burst through for an individual try and then returned a Rovers’ kick from his own goal-line – an incredible 40 metre gain to turn the tide in FC’s favour. Hull won 22-20, Radford’s job was saved. You know the rest.

I appreciate that was against Rovers, not Australia, but in a pressure situation, on hostile territory, this full-back grabbed hold of a game his team were losing and turned it around. Oh, and Shaul was the top try scoring full back in Super League in 2017, in the top ten overall.

I’ve been accused of Hull FC bias of course, and I get that. I love my club. But I’m not sitting here saying Liam Watts, Jake Connor and Danny Houghton should have been picked. I’m not suggesting Scott Taylor, who was the only Hull player in the World Cup squad, should have played every game. It’s nothing to do with my love for my club, it’s a common sense decision. If you need a full-back, where do you look? The double cup winning side would be a decent place to start maybe?

I could make a case for selection for Marc Sneyd, but it’s such an obvious one I won’t bother. Any kind of kicking game would have been good, but one which is capable of turning a game on its head completely was a no-brainer.

But while I believe Gale under-performed in the tournament, and that his Grand Final shocker should have alerted Bennett to a problem, I think he would have done enough in the final with a good 6 next to him. Kevin Brown was 6 in the final – he had a good first half against France and Bennett’s England-based helpers bigged him up like he was the new Alex Murphy. Just no.

Widdop should have been 6, and Bennett should not have ignored Shaul, a double cup winning full-back.

Especially as, in case anyone has forgotten, England were trying to win a cup…