It's the same old story ......We have always been able to match the Aussies in the forwards, but our centres and half-backs have always been our weak point.
We have been unlucky this year regarding our centres. Currie (who is strong in defence and attack) could have been an option and Shenton would most probably have been there, but instead our coach decided to choose Watkins based on his previous form and Percival, who is at best a winger ......How Atkins, who has arguably been the best centre in the Super League this year, didn't get the nod is beyond me .....Even choosing Bateman at centre to tighten up our defence in that position would have been a better option to me ......But, instead, we went for Watkins and Percival ......And as for choosing the young Rhinos kid who has only played 4 games this year over the many options that could have actually given us an added dimension, options and actual game time is inconceivable to me .....Like I said before, it is the same old story, we are weak in the centres and haven't had international standard centres since the days of Connolly and Newlove.
And as for the half-backs .....Why on earth would the coach choose 3 different combinations of half-backs within a tournament that ultimately consists of 3 games? ......My only reasoning for this is that the coach wrote off this tournament and used it as an exercise to prepare for the upcoming World Cup.
Personally, I think that our best half-back combination is Gale and Williams and that Widdop only gets the nod because he is an NRL player. Widdop is an excellent player, but he is a support player in the role of an off-half and not a Scrum-half organiser .....If the coach decided to use this four nations tournament as an exercise then why didn't he stick with a half-back combination that he feels will be the future regardless of whether or not it is Gale/Williams, Gale/Widdop, Widdop/Williams, Brown/Widdop, Brown/Williams, Smith/Widdop or any other half-back combination you can think of ......Surely if this four nations was seen as an exercise to find the right half-back combination then using his own intuition and giving that combination game time to work together would have been better for the national side in the long run ........Use your experience and expertise to decide who the half-backs are and go with it, Bennett!......Because, as it stands right now, are we anymore wiser as to who our half-backs will be for the upcoming World Cup?
Anyway, the best thing about this four nations tournament was seeing Scotland hold the Kiwis to a draw ......They did a damn sight better then we did! ......This tournament is Scotland's tournament regardless of who of the old guard eventually wins it.....Well done, Scotland! ......Your celebrations will be a hell of a lot better than England's after the tournament is over and done with!
