Steve McNamara has again insisted he will not speak about his future as the England head coach until after the three-Test series against New Zealand.
McNamara is out of contract with both England and the NRL side Sydney Roosters, where he is the assistant coach, at the end of this year – although reports in Australia on Tuesday said he has signed a two-year extension to his deal to remain with the club.
But when asked about his own position as the England coach, which has held since 2010, McNamara was unmoved. “I’ve said this all along and nothing’s changed; I won’t speak about my own situation until after this series,” McNamara said. “I’m fully focused on making sure we win this series and everything else on the back of that can be worked out afterwards.”
However, he did hint that he is happy with his role as a head coach at international level and an assistant on a day-to-day basis at club level. “It certainly works for me; I really love both jobs and the aspects of both at club and international level,” he said. “Being an assistant works for me and the aspects of the two jobs complement each other. It works for me and our group with the way things are set up.” Ahead of the first Test at Hull on Sunday, McNamara confirmed that Sam Tomkins is taking part in full training after missing Saturday’s 84-4 win against France due to injury, but says he will not rush into deciding his team.
“We’re not close with team selection right now, simply because it’s a nice long week for us between games,” McNamara said. “We’ve got an eight-day turnaround between the matches and there’s lots of things we want to focus on ourselves between games. We want everyone to contribute towards that and I’m in no real rush. It’s about thinking about the things we want to do before we really start getting into New Zealand and all the pressure a Test match week brings.
“There’s a couple of bumps and bruises from the France game but nothing major. The seven players who didn’t play on Saturday are all taking part in full training though, including Sam.”
Despite such a comprehensive victory against the French acting as little preparation for a high-intensity Test against the Kiwis, McNamara says the Anglo-French games must continue, adding England have a duty of care to help strengthen the international game in the northern hemisphere.
He said: “We really have a huge responsibility to enhance our international games. France need help to achieve their potential, as they’re certainly a better team than the one that got beat by 80 points. We’ve got a responsibility as a game to try play as many international fixtures as possible. There were a few things which prevented France from fielding their strongest team but I’d rather continue those than play against a club team, for example.”
