I wanna see the halves roles reversed, let Gale play on his preferred left and be more of a creative, swap in Percival for Sarginson and we could replicate what Cas had on their left hand side this season

Johnson was the difference between the sides and on a different level to our two halfbacks. IMO our worst player was Sarginson who should have passed to the unmarked Hall early in the game and then made a bad read in defence which was costly and generally looked of his depth. Widdop too was poor on attack and cost us a try although his place kicking was ok. Watkins was ineffective on attack and neither centres used their wingers who both had good games.

Hodgson played well but Clarke should have been used in the first half before their forwards got their second wind.

I could not understand how the ref let NZ get away with the holding on after the tackle. We need to be a lot sharper in attack and better organised to have any chance against Australia.

Switch Watkins to Halls wing and play Bateman as the other centre . Graham was far and away Englands best player . Switch Johnson to an England shirt and we win comfortably . Thought Clark was under used and Hicks let Kiwis mess about in the ruck to suit themselves .

This.

Watkins is to blame yet "NRL superman Burgess S" is immune to multiple brainfarts and walks away clean? Gawd I love this game.

On the replay of the drop goal from Shaun Johnson yesterday it appears it could have gone wide?

Hicks looked well out of his depth yesterday and he really should've gone to the VR.
Impossible to tell from that video though so it'd probably have been given regardless.

On to Scotland then the Aussies. I'm pretty confident we can still make the final TBH.
Doubt we can win the final as that would probably mean beating Aus twice and we all know that'll never happen, but we'll put up a better fight than NZ did in the WC final.

#BlameWatkins

Don't know what some are seeing. It clearly goes through, everyone's reaction from the NZ and England players to those in the crowd confirms it. It's not even like it went over the top of the post so was potentially debatable.

It goes to the side of the post from the back angle you can see it on the TV replay.

It doesn't, just the White of the ball and White of the post making it appears so. The reply also shows 4 England players looking right back at the posts as it goes through and Lomax stood right underneath them......none bat an eyelid or complain when it's awarded. I'd take that over (and also several people who were sat in the stand at that end have all said it was fine) a trick of the eye reply.

yeah pretty much, now #BlameSirKev is redundant. Funny thing is, we could have done with Sinfield yesterday. he would have slotted over a one pointer for sure. As it was everyone, including the current captain, were performing the headless chicken routine in the last ten minutes.

It's a one pointer, it went inside the post.

Agreed, but then why start the thread if it doesn't matter who thinks it went over or not?

I was working yesterday so watched the game this afternoon with a friend and I thought it missed too - they agreed. But it doesn't matter. I wondered was it discussed on the red button forum seeing as the after match analysis was 50 seconds long?

I think Watkins didn't do a great deal wrong but he didn't really do anything full stop. I don't think he is getting blamed per se, but his potential is so much greater than a lot of the others that a flat game by him is more disappointing and a miss than a non-descript game by others.

I was frustrated by him. If it was Bateman or someone else I would have thought they had done more ok, as they have less potential explosiveness.

Because we can't change it but wanted to get people's opinions on whether they thought it went over or not.

It probably is that more is expected of him, but then at the same time those who have been lining him up as the scapegoat since the squad was announced was questioning why he was picked because he's not good enough.

So whilst they say he's not good enough they then go and show double standards by judging him differently because they expect more from him as a player.

Personally yesterday he had that once chance from McGillvary's offload which was a tricky one to take in. After that he had no ball. Whitehead missed him out for McGillvary's try. Widdop looped that pass over him out to Bateman at the end with the break on. Lomax missed him out to set McGillvary up in the corner in the first half which McGillvary bombed by not going for the corner flag with the defence stretched.....no one is mentioning that wasted chance though (because McGillvary isn't at one of the big clubs with chip on shoulders fans of smaller clubs waiting to criticise him) which was probably our best worked move in the game and have people more certain on Lomax with a try assist to his name.

I am dubious it went over too, and am not going to deride those who think this thread is pointless. It was worth a point at the time!

I agree with you Printer, but I suspect people get in the cycle of 'complain when he is in and then blame him after' because of the sense of hope or 'what could happen' when it does click. In fallout you then get people saying either of those two things- he has done nothing to deserve being there, or, 'he could have done this or that' instead.

Both are out of frustration, just from different angles.

I don't think the thread is pointless but isn't the reaction and positioning of the players on the pitch not a crucial piece of evidence.

So was the drop goal.

Clearly it went over or all the England players close to it would have complained to get it checked

I think Watkins is a cracking player. I think the only other potential option that could have been in the squad this year is Atkins. I'd like to see Percival given a go over Sarginson, who IMO was worse than Kallum.

I think the problem with all of our centres is none of them are physically imposing, none of them would scare the Aus back line. Watkins has the potential to but lacks that competitive, nasty edge.

I miss Keith Senior...

Senior and Hall for Leeds and England in this era would be a thing of beauty