Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:42 pm  

Funny that people are rabbiting on about the halfbacks again. England have been battered in the pack.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:44 pm  

Have to say though Australia have played much better than they have done in the past few tournaments.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

FlexWheeler wrote:

:lol:

I was waiting for the obligatory ''we'll never be good enough/beat the aussies until we........''.

Bravo.

It's true though Int it. We have not got anywhere near them since 1994. No coincidence that since the Quita went from 3 to around 8 that we have gone backwards. We have not addressed the same issues we have had for 15years plus, we are not producing enough quality players across multiple positions.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

We're losing this game because their pack has had more intensity in their running and tackling than we have.

We've also looked a bit one dimensional at hooker with just Hodgson. Hooker is our strongest position with Hodgson Clark McIlorum Roby...yet we've not used Clark well in this tournament at all.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

The reality is we have conceded three soft tries, Australia don't do that and NZ rarely do, that is the difference.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

rollin thunder wrote:

Same old same old. We will never be good enough until we stop all the average journey men overseas players playing in super league. I really believe two things need to happen limite over seas players to 3 and 5 max including residency players.

And do what Australia do, only pick players who play in super league,

Nah I am not buying this.. journey men are coming to super league because England do not produce enough quality players. Until the playing pool is increased nothing will change. You can't say pick young English players, if they are not good enough then it's pointless them playing. How about producing a real reserve grade so young players are not lost from the game.

As for picking players only in super league. First of all that won't stop players going to the NRL and if you only had a team full of super league players then England become a poor side pretty quickly.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

People need to sit up and realise that the game in this country is dying a very slow and painful death. I know people have been saying this for quite a few years but the evidence is there to support this. We look as dire as ever on the pitch, and to not be selling out games against the aussies is criminal. Whether it be a friendly or World Cup final, games against the aussies should be near sellouts, not a half empty national stadium. The quality of super league is dropping year on year with sky's coverage following suit. Then you look at ru, they've just upped the pay packets per match to 20k an appearance!

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:46 pm  

We've gone backwards under Bennett.

The end result is the same but the peformances under Mcnamara towards the end were very good, especially down under in 2014.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:48 pm  

FlexWheeler wrote:

Funny that people are rabbiting on about the halfbacks again. England have been battered in the pack.

Too many players who just because they play in NRL are deemed to be automatic choices, both the burgess twins are no were near as good as people make out, average at best.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:48 pm  

Sam Burgess shadow of the player he was before joining union , josh hodgson not a 90 min hooker and offers no zip like you get from clarke , chopping and changing halfs every game no cohesion gone backwards since 2014