Well for once it can't be me - this is my first post on this thread

Do hope it's not me because if we're banning joke replies to opinions we don't agree with then this forum's finished.

First Brexit, then Trump and now..... NewSouthstander.

What a year.

Criticism of the moderation process will not be tolerated.



You vill obeeeey!

I bet Wayne Bennett expected something similar too...

I'm not keen on the throwing coaches together idea, The hope being that you get the best of both but potentially you just end up with a "too many cooks" scenario.

I mean look at Bennett's staff for this campaign. Had he ever spent any time in the company of or even spoke with the likes of Betts, Sculthorpe, Anderson and Peacock to see if they're a good fit for what he wants from his team? A few of those were very late appointments within a month of the tournament starting. Wouldn't any coach be better having a coaching staff he's worked with, knows and is compatible with instead of just throwing ex-England internationals at him?

Whilst Bennett has been successful in his career, it does happen in sport where great coaches & players go to a new team (and country) and it's just not the right fit and they've can't reproduce the success they've had at previous teams. Whilst it is only his first competition as England coach I'm just left thinking after what we've seen and heard that he just isn't the right fit for this job.

Speaking of former England internationals, one of Sinfield's roles in his new job was to lead a review of England's 4 Nations campaign so will be interesting to hear that.

The myth England have a better pack than Austrailia was certainly busted.

James Graham is probably the only English player who would get into their team. Maybe Sam Burgess if he re-gained some form.

You can add to your tale of errors by Widdop his interception pass that cost us the game against NZ. He had a very poor series and he should not have been selected in the halves for this match. He is a much overrated player. Perceval also had a bad series and should have been replaced at half time.

The whole side looked ponderous and had a slow line speed and at times looked like strangers to each other with a lack of leadership. We had a predictable one up down the middle game plan that posed no problems for Australia and we only looked dangerous going wide with cut out passes and a couple of dummy passes in the middle.

I thought Graham looked tired and ineffective in this series - his time at this level is coming to an end.

Probably still the best we've got.

Against NZ and Australia I thought that when Hill and Graham both went off, we lost some grunt and momentum.

Thought all the Burgess lot disappointed.

I thought Sam was trying too hard & the other two not hard enough.

Burgess' punch the the head on Klemmer was embarrassing and very lucky not to have been a red card.

I'm not sticking up for Sam but klemmer deserves it half the time he started that altercation with Burgess with the push but Sam over reacted and in the heat of the moment lashed out. But i remember in the 2014 four nations Australia scored and he ran over to Graham and pushed him in the back for no reason.

I agree with most of this and I think England will get stuffed in the World Cup if the selection and tactics don't change.
There needs to be a wholly different approach, picking players on form and should be a few warm up games against, for example a Yorkshire side or an England reserves side, with a settled core of the England team team so that the players have the opportunity to gel with well practiced plays, rather than the headless chicken approach we have just witnessed.

My idea of the 'core' is: full back - Ratchford, centres - Griffin and Currie, the halves - Gale and Williams, with set plays on the left and right for each. Hookers - Clark and Houghton / Hodgson. If he's fit LF should be O'Loughlin as old as he is, as he provides leadership. You may not think that these players are the right ones or that they are good enough, but we should at least try to give the spine of the side a chance to train and play together as much as possible.

I also think that Darryl Powell should be part of the coaching team to bring some ideas and flair to the backs. This reliance on forward power, in other words trying to play the Aussie way, just doesn't work. We played like we were coached by forwards only, and fell for the Aussie pre-match comments that we would use our size and power

Another area that requires vast improvement is our kicking game. Shaun Johnson killed us with his grubbers over our line. I'm not saying that is all we should do but certainly the team should know who's going to kick and what type of kick is coming.
All in all England need to play the RL way not the NRL way and picking form players in their specialist positions. We need to play to our strengths - off loading and putting on set moves at speed, in other words playing expansively as any team in the world will struggle against those tactics if we get the timing and teamwork right.
If we lose against the Aussie and NZ in the World Cup, at least we will have gone down entertaining.

Cas fan by chance

To be honest, Burgess was annoying me constantly eyeballing the ref for a penalty after every carry. Just do your job and play the ball quick.

Klemmer is the Australians Ryan Bailey, a big, nasty pantomime villain whose antics are hilarious to watch if your a neutral or he's in your team

Klemmer stuck his fingers in Sam's face, the England skipper thumped him. What's the problem?

Perhaps......

We have been adrift of the Aussies now for 40 years. At times the gap has narrowed but it feels fairly wide at the moment.

In 1978 we won the 2nd test at Odsal to level the series and mean a decider at Headingley. I stood on the western terrace and watched us be outpowered and outplayed. Even worse, there were nearly 30,000 in and nobody could move. The result was wet, warm legs as people refilled their pint pots and tried to pour on the floor.

By the time 1982 came the gap was a chasm. The times we have got closer IMO have been when they have had good but not great halves.

Playing SOO together, the core of their team knows each other inside out. In the last two years we have played Tomkins, Hardaker and Lomax at full back and a cast of characters in the halves, at hooker and loose forward.

Doug Laughton said a few years ago we may never beat them again, I am fearing he may be right.

I would keep Bennett. He is a truly great supporter of the international game in actions not words. If he works a miracle and gets us a World Cup he will have secured beyond doubt the tag of best ever coach and will deserve a knighthood.

Going to Anfield on Sunday in hope NZ can give em a good game

1978 was the tour where the signs were there of a gap emerging between the two. The 1980 tour of Australia confirmed a huge gap. The 1982 Kangaroo Tour confirmed a chasm. We bridged the gap briefly between 1988 and 1994 but it's been very one-sided ever since.

The Odsal test in 1978 was my first taste of an international. There were 26K there though still plenty of room

How did 30K squeeze into Headingley?



If Doug Laughton doesn't believe we will ever beat them again, we really are stuffed

ah yes, the old ''we should pick players on form''. The burgii have been in poor form. Dropping them would not improve our chances. We don't have the depth to do this, we can only select the best players we have.

I'm so sick of reading the same crap after an england/GB series defeat, been reading it on here for the last 10 years, mainly on the VT. We should do away/bring back relegation, we should have yorkshire v lancashire, lee gaskell should have been selected etc.

We can beat them again and we will beat them again. We just don't play them enough these days to get our lucky win like we used to in the 3 test series or playing them at least twice in the tri series back in the day.

as ever everything has to click for us, whilst the Aussies have to be having at least a slight off day or caught cold. Our chances of winning anything major at international level look as far away as ever though.

Ha, so very predictable isn't it?

I'm same.

There are lots of parts of Sam's game that can be picked apart in the games against NZ and Australia but that scuffle can be shelved. Nothing to see.

Quote ="William Eve"The Odsal test in 1978 was my first taste of an international. There were 26K there though still plenty of room How did 30K squeeze into Headingley? '" Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WOZa4stlmo I was in the south stand close to where John Atkinson got stretchered off after being splattered by one of the aussies. And although my memory is of the ground being pretty full, I actually thought it was fuller for the cup quarter final against Northern a few months previous - when the published attendance was c18k

Quote ="William Eve"The Odsal test in 1978 was my first taste of an international. There were 26K there though still plenty of room How did 30K squeeze into Headingley? '" Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WOZa4stlmo I was in the south stand close to where John Atkinson got stretchered off after being splattered by one of the aussies. And although my memory is of the ground being pretty full, I actually thought it was fuller for the cup quarter final against Northern a few months previous - when the published attendance was c18k

I agree it's depressing but having watched the game only since 1991 when I moved to Leeds from a RL nonexistent area(Suffolk) I don't know any different. The worst bit is we could not beat them with the great players we had then ie Hanley Schofield Farrell Connoly and such and we no longer produce them that is what concerns me most.