England should have won the Rugby League World Cup and some team selections were debatable, according to the man interested in replacing Wayne Bennett as national coach – ex-Great Britain pivot Daryl Powell.
England players threw their support behind Bennett remaining at the national helm after their gutsy 6-0 World Cup final loss to Australia in Brisbane last weekend, which ended his two year tenure.
Bennett would not comment on his representative future after guiding England to their first World Cup final in 22 years.
But Castleford coach Powell has put up his hand, saying “if we’d been a little bit more clinical we would have won it”.
“England is a big job and a special one so I’d be pretty foolish not to be interested if it did come up,” he told The Yorkshire Post.
“Wayne has done a pretty tidy job.
“There was maybe a couple of things with his team selections which were debatable.
“There’s lots of things to love about England in this tournament but I thought they probably should have won it.
“A little bit of composure and execution in key positions is where we fell down a little bit.
“If we’d been a little bit more clinical we would have won it.”
Powell – who guided Castleford to a maiden Super League grand final this season – has already been linked to the Great Britain job when they reform to tour Australia in 2019.
“If you have any ambitions at all, you want to be coaching there…and the same with England as it’s almost the same job,” Powell said.
He also hinted that England would succeed if they stuck to their own style of play – not try and copy Australia.
“He (Bennett) has been a massively successful coach in Australia without a shadow of a doubt and the England players are really happy with him,” Powell said of seven-time premiership winner Bennett.
“But we got beat by the Aussies playing their game a little bit better than us.
“We have our own identity here – or we should have – and that is a little bit different to what they produce.
“I think our halfbacks should be able to play a little bit differently to the Aussies … I do think we have to play our own way.”