Steve McNamara enjoys breathing space after England's series win over New Zealand

England 20 New Zealand 14

(Getty Images)

England’s 20-14 victory over New Zealand in the deciding Test of the Baskerville Shield series will not only save Steve McNamara’s job, it also sends the British game into its short off-season in a much more optimistic mood than seemed likely at some stages.

A Kiwi squad without several of its leading play-makers had always looked beatable, but it needed to be borne in mind that they had not always been at full strength when they won the big games against Australia that enabled them to call themselves the best team in the world.

The England coach got his team changes right for the third and final Test at Wigan, with both Matty Smith and Jermaine McGillvary having outstanding games.

No-one was claiming afterwards, though, that the result makes them even unofficial the No 1 team in the world, although there is one line of logic that says that if you beat the previous holders of that title, you take over.

It is impossible to claim it with any conviction, however, without beating Australia, the first chance which to do so comes in a Four Nations tournament also involving the Kiwis and Scotland next autumn.

Experience teaches just how hard that will be, although it should be noted that time and all being well they will have one Sam Burgess and probably Sam Tomkins as well.

What also looks increasingly certain is that McNamara will still be in charge. He is due to sit down with the RFL and discuss a possible extension to his contract and he is now in a strong bargaining position, which would not have been the case if the decision was being made after England’s abject display in the second Test in London.

That seemed to many to sum up all the shortcomings of McNamara’s coaching, with its deep-rooted tactical conservatism. Against that, he got lucky off his bench in the first Test and got his selections right for the third, which just about keeps him ahead of the game.

There are those, of course, to whom having an England coach based in Sydney could only be justified if he was far and away the best coach in the world – and Steve McNamara, however likeable and hard-working he might be, is definitely not that.

You could even argue that the likes of Daryl Powell or Brian McDermott could do the job at least as well on a part time basis.

McNamara was not wiling even to say whether he wants the job, although, in effect, his application is already on the doormat. “I’m not in any hurry,” he said and, after England’s first series victory in eight years, he can afford not to be.

From the rugby league’s point of view, this has been a successful series, with a crowd of 44,000 in London, a full house at Wigan and a positive result for England.

The next international commitment is the World Club Series in February, in which the majority of England’s best players will be taking on the best club sides from Australia.

That is another chance for English clubs to show that, while the NRL undeniably has the greater strength in depth, the gap between it and Super League is not growing.

As for the Kiwis, entirely composed now of NRL players, they will be back as perennial stumbling blocks for the unwary. Their coaching job is Stephen Kearney’s for as long as he wants it and, by the time we see them next, they will presumably have the likes of Shaun Johnson and Kieron Foran back on deck and – who knows? – Sonny Bill Williams.

In the meantime, the ultimately unsuccessful class of 2015 have shown, through players like Kodi Nikorima and Tui Lolohea, that they have some depth in store.