Brough's nomination for "International Player of the Year" is comical.

IMO he's not exactly taken this World Cup by the scruff of the neck, and that represents his only international rugby of the last 12 months. If there was a desperate need to pick someone from the Home Nations, then why not Ryan Hall or Sam Tomkins who have both had good World Cup campaigns for England?

If (big if) you were going to pick a Scotland player on international performances, surely Matty Russell would have been the choice.

Wes Naiquama is probably my pick of players outside the "big 3" countries.

Tomkins has been a big disappointment, up to now, considering the expectations of him. He's looked a liability defensively. Burgess, Graham, and yes Sinfield, have had much better tournaments thus far.

George Burgess was great against Australia but pretty quiet since. Chris Hill has probably been our best prop......but then again George suits your "young player/prop agenda" much better

Tomkins hasn't been a disappointment but at the same time he hasn't hit top gear, he got through the group stage by being ok without being anything more. He showed glimpses of magic against France and hopefully he can show more against the Kiwis and Australia.

What are these moment of magic in defence? Let me repeat, he's been a liability defensively. One glimpse of magic can not make up for brain farts.

That was why I labelled him a disappointment so far. So far as in, he potentially has another two games to step up that gear you mention, he certainly hasn't looked one of our better players so far as I responded to. But for me the issue isn't offence, but defence.

It will be interesting to see who is in the 17 and who starts.

Will Burrow be on the bench, will Widdup start in the halves or at FB? Is Ablett in as cover for possible Watkins injury doubts?

Widdop was excellent. Provided a direct running threat and took a lot of the attention off Sinny.

Probably the reverse of what I expected from the Chase/Widdop choice. Chase was less threat as a runner than I expected, but to be fair got more out of that left side attack. Widdop was more threat as a runner than Chase had been, particularly in the middle.

Left side was not great today on attack. We managed to create a lot more space on the right, really managed to straighten and hold the drift. Contrast was the Kiwi right which was able to drift and handle things pretty well.
Not blaming Cudjoe by any means, but thought there were a couple of times when a very quick shift of the ball would have gotten Hall away. He just seems to hang onto the ball a little too long.

I think the biggest brain farts came from Graham! Widdop stood up today better than I thought considering IMO

You do realise my post was referring to before today's game?

As you quoted my post, would just like to say thought Tomkins was excellent defensively today. Weirdly though, I thought offensively he was lacking.

If you are referring to today, then get your lenses changed. Graham was absolutely outstanding, and the foundation England built on.

Possibly



Not sure Chris Hill has been best prop.....but he has been one of the better consistently good but not outstanding individuals.

I am happy to state Sam Burgess showed today why he has the reputation he has....fantastic performance. However, Graham is still England's best prop IMO. I love his effort, commitment, go forward AND skill at passing at the line.

What a performance today .... Superb match. Feel genuinely gutted for the players. Without a doubt Widdop justified his selection. I was wrong. AND happy to be wrong. Played like that there can be no doubt RL is by far the best team sport in the world. Fantastic: cannot say it enough

Yes realised too late, apologies, but never said Graham played poorly just that he made a couple terrible split second decisions but luckily England weren't punished. I would suggest he dives on the ball rather than kicking it into the oppositions hands on the last play which could have led to a dangerous Kiwi counter attack had the ref not blown up for a knock on.

Awesome match though!

Our left side was not so good on defence either. Hall let one in and was lucky it wasn't two a few minutes later. He did this in the WCC which also cost us. I thought our right side could have made more of the chances they created but the NZ defence was too good.

Overall great effort and we made enough chances for a deserved win. Discipline and errors let us down. Sam Burgess, Graham and Sinfield stood out with good effort from Widdup.

I felt the coach brought on Burrow too soon. He could have been more effective in the second half with our first choice props on and when NZ were looking dazed.

So, Widdop showed his NRL class then?

He went ok. Our attacking patterns were set by the SL class of Sinfield, Roby and O'Loughlin.

Our 2 starting props certainly did the NRL proud though.

It seems wrong and harsh to try and highlight individual mistakes in a game like today's. Every single player gave it everything, and to make the wrong read or drop a ball in a game with such intensity is understandable. It was played in the right spirit and I don't know how more of them weren't injured. A brilliant advert for our sport and I'm immensely proud of them all, and to be a rugby league fan.

How much game time did Ablett get today?

Enough to share his experiences with his Leeds team mates of the same bench club.

Our right side could have made more of their chances, but I'd say that there were some poor decisions rather than just quality defence. Think the NZ left side was weak, and there were half-chances where 1) Watkins passed too early, 2) Tomkins held on with an overlap, 3) Charnley was positioned in front of Watkins denying him a line-breaking pass, 4) Charnley couldn't finish off a clean break.

None of these were terrible pieces of play, but I reckon the Hayne and Morris partnership would have scored from at least a couple of them. And that's the difference.

Agree with you about Burrow though. Roby and Graham were having hugely influential games. Taking them both off at the same time was a mistake. Burrow is best brought on when the game needs changing, which it didn't.

Dunno how accurate these are, but according to George Riley:

Sam Burgess: 18 runs, 206 metres, 29 tackles, three offloads, one line break, one try assist, one try.

Wowser.

Would like to see Graham's also, as at the game I thought he did even more of the hard work, with Burgess the quality.

I thought they were both outstanding. Our whole forward pack was awesome, but those two were immense.

James Graham was outstanding yesterday without doubt

However, the way he played yesterday there has to be a strong argument for Sam Burgess being the best forward in world rugby at the moment and I do include SBW in that. He can play prop, loose and second row with ease and just looks unstoppable at times.

I have also been very impressed with Chris Hill in this tournament - slightly quieter yesterday but looked class in my opinion throughout.

What a shame only one of these players plays in Super League