Shaun Wane must be on cloud nine this week. And he totally deserves it. The tough England coach, who wears his heart on his sleeve, has been completely proven right during this Test series against opponents who were expected to give England a tough time. Before the first Test at St Helens just over two weeks ago, everyone thought it could be a tricky one for England. Shaun was really gutted, just like me, when England lost in the semi-final to Samoa in last year’s World Cup. It was a crushing defeat that felt a lot like England’s semi-final loss to New Zealand at Wembley nine years earlier – a late strike by the opposition that turned the tables on England winning a World Cup in their own country. Both those games were nail-biters, with England ending up on the losing side. I can’t decide if it’s better to lose a really close match in the last minute, or to get thrashed, like England’s 49-6 defeat to New Zealand in the 2000 World Cup semi-final at Bolton. At least in that game, when England were coached by John Kear, we knew our fate long before the final whistle. Our disappointment was softened by the fact that we clearly didn’t deserve to reach the World Cup Final. The Tongans almost beat us in the semi-final of the 2017 tournament. They were actually unlucky not to do so when they lost 20-18 in Auckland. So it was fair to assume that six years later they would be an even bigger threat, especially as they were coming to England with a squad exclusively from the NRL, and their coach Kristian Woolf, who had enjoyed so much success with St Helens, was in his tenth year of coaching the Tongans. But as it turned out, there was no need for any English fans to be worried about what would happen. The Tongans gave us a tough time at St Helens, losing by only four points, and the margin was extended to ten points at Huddersfield in a game that had few highlights, before England really let loose on Saturday at Headingley, scoring four amazing tries, any one of which could have been the try of the week. I thought the Tongans might come out for this clash determined to win at least one game in the series, but if they did, they were no match for England. The gap between the two sides had widened during the series until the English proved themselves to be much the superior team. I was thrilled to see Harry Smith win the Nan Halafihi Medal as the best player in the tournament, which was well-deserved. His kick across the field for England’s fourth try, scored by Harry Newman, was possibly the highlight of the whole tournament. After the game, Wane was generous enough to credit his assistant Lee Briers for that try, who has achieved so much at Brisbane Broncos in 2023. This will surely lead to a huge increase in interest in Smith from NRL clubs looking for a player who can control the game on the field. I would guess, maybe conservatively, that Smith’s value on the market must have doubled as a result of this Test series, and rightly so. But he wasn’t the only reason for England’s success. Shaun had to make a tough call on Saturday by dropping Mikey Lewis, who had played so well in the first two Test matches, and whose emotional interview after the game at St Helens will be remembered for a long time. In a way, the coach and his captain George Williams could have been in trouble if England had performed poorly after making that change. But we needn’t have worried. England gave one of their best performances in many years. If they had played like that against Samoa in last year’s semi-final, they would surely have won that game. It was great to see a back line selected purely from Super League doing so well against their NRL rivals, with England’s spine players of Jack Welsby, Williams, Smith and Daryl Clark clearly outshining their rivals, which will no doubt give the Tongan coach plenty to think about on the flight back to Australia. Harry Newman will also attract a lot of interest from Australia, while Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall would have been watching closely as John Bateman once again showed that he is perhaps the best at offloading the ball out of the tackle anywhere in the world. On a day when New Zealand beat Australia by a record score, it made me wish we were playing the Kangaroos sooner than 2025. And I’d be surprised if Shaun Wane didn’t feel the same way.