England assistant Andy Last is getting stick in Castleford ranks about his country’s shock World Cup exit - but insists it’ll eventually work to Tigers’ advantage.
The Castleford No2 is back in pre-season training with the Super League club this week after being on international duty with England chief Shaun Wane. Last was left gutted after last month’s 27-26 golden point World Cup semi-final heartache against Samoa. Having raised hopes with some stellar displays, including a 60-6 thrashing of Samoa in the group stages, sorry England missed out yet again.
Castleford head of analysis Dan Blundell worked for Samoa in the tournament and he’s been winding Last up. But it’ll be even worse when Tigers boss Lee Radford - who also helped coach the Pacific Islanders - returns to take charge next week. Last admitted: “We didn’t play to our best and we know we left 18 points on the pitch in the first half alone. We could easily have been 24-10 up at the break (rather than 10-6 down).
"But in the big moments you have to take those chances. Unfortunately we didn’t. The game is all about fine margins. And in extra-time Samoa got that drop goal on the back of two errors in our own end. Dan’s made a couple of comments about it all. But, like I say to him, on aggregate, over the two games, we absolutely battered them.
“If it was a two-legged tie we’d have been through! I’ve been trying to put that argument over but I know there’ll be more from Radders when he comes in. There’ll be some banter in the coaches’ office on Monday morning. But they’ve both learned some things from some of the best players in the world and I’m the same. We want to bring that back to Cas.”
And ex-Hull coach Last insists the big trick to it all is simple. He said: “Dan spoke about (Samoa’s) Joseph Suaalli and just what a professional, mature 19 year-old he is. We’ve seen what true elite players look like and for me there’s lessons we can put into practice at Castleford.
"There’s not any secrets. The best players in the world work HARDER. I was blown away by the levels of application from Chris Hill at 35 who pushes himself again and again, in the gym and in all areas, to make sure he’s still at the top of his game at 35. I saw the intensity at which Matty Lees, Morgan Knowles and Jack Welsby trained. It was unbelievable. Then there was Tom Burgess and the amount of video he’d go through to study the opposition, while John Bateman and Elliot Whitehead were the same with their appetite to work hard to be the best.”
Last, who was appointed by Wane in April 2020, certainly savoured his own first experience of working at the highest level. The 41-year-old said: “I learned a great deal about myself and elite players but also the coaching staff. There’s a lot of experienced people in the England programme so it was a great learning curve.
“It was fantastic to pit my wits against the best players in the world and opposition coaches. There was a great deal to take out of it. Some of the things we did in that first game against Samoa and then France, Greece and Papua New Guinea were sensational. It’s just a shame we didn’t show that clinical edge from the first Samoa game in the second one. That was the most disappointing thing.”
Samoa became the first tier two nation to reach the World Cup final and eventually lost 30-10 to holders Australia. -Last added: “We did create opportunities in that first half but unfortunately just didn’t take them and it was a disappointing way to finish. We all hurt and we need to have a real honest, open review into what happened. And then hopefully in three years’ time we can go a couple of steps further.
“Working with that group of players and how we all came together created some of the best memories of my time in rugby league. The rawness is still there, though. I've watched it back once. It’ll take some time to get over but I don’t want it dragging into what we want to do with Castleford in this new season.”
