What colour's Parnaby?
I thought you were talking about the Hunslet kit that he's taken to wearing.

What a great final.
Despite the Kiwis being on top for most of the game I couldn't help but think the Aussies would still conjure up a win.
What a pity we couldn't keep hold of Greg Eastwood & what would we give to have a forward like Taupou?

Agreed. The best team won though and they have now beaten the Aussies back to back. The Aussies forwards are lacking in size and grunt which must be of concern to them.

Can we have Shaun Johnson pleaaaseee...... McGuire is part of the 'best squad ever' maybe the club could do a straight swap and nobody would notice the difference

Wonder how many of those Kiwi and Samoan players from this tournament will end up in the Green & Gold by the next World Cup?

I rate Cherry-Evans. He really creates space for line breaks. NZ deserved win, but I thought Australia were robbed at the death. Where did Bentham get a knock on from. The Aussie winger grounded the ball in the corner too. It never showed a side view to see if he was in touch, but I'm pretty sure he was off the ground. I know you couldn't go to video ref after odd knock on call though.

Thought it was a forward pass ruling. And it was correct from the angle I saw.

What's the incentive for them Andy? Samoans possibly, but if they want to join a winning team then NZ would be the choice. I can understand talented individuals in a team that can't win big games against Australia switching, but NZ must be clear favourites for the World Cup now, and are in most ways a much better outfit than Australia.
I don't know the eligibility rules for Origin, but that's the only reason I can see someone wanting to switch international loyalties from NZ to Oz.

Correct, still can't make up for the Ryan Hall no try in our game vs the Aussies. But at last the better team on the day won.
I also thought that the Aussies got away with a number of late hits on Johnson after he'd kicked the ball that ought to have been penalised.
Otherwise I considered that Bentham had a decent game along with his touch judges.
Also I enjoyed the commentary on BBC but I'd have liked to have heard Andrew Voss even more.
All in all an excellent tournament & a credit to our game.
Finally, the failure of the Aussies to handle the brilliant Shaun Johnson should put Sinfield's efforts against him in the dying moments of last year's England vs Kiwis game into perspective.
But I won't hold my breath on that.

The good BBC coverage has been significantly enhanced by the replacement of Jonathan Davies during this tournament; I would go as far to say that with his removal the overall package has been better than the BBC have ever produced,

I wholeheartedly concur Re: Jonathan Davies

Quote ="DHM"What's the incentive for them Andy? Samoans possibly, but if they want to join a winning team then NZ would be the choice. I can understand talented individuals in a team that can't win big games against Australia switching, but NZ must be clear favourites for the World Cup now, and are in most ways a much better outfit than Australia. I don't know the eligibility rules for Origin, but that's the only reason I can see someone wanting to switch international loyalties from NZ to Oz.'" www.nrl.com/portals/nrl/RadEdito ... lained.pdf You have to have resided in NSW or Queensland prior to your 13th birthday. So for a lot of the Samoan boys, that would probably make them eligible for Origin. Not sure whether it would apply to the Kiwis.

Quote ="DHM"What's the incentive for them Andy? Samoans possibly, but if they want to join a winning team then NZ would be the choice. I can understand talented individuals in a team that can't win big games against Australia switching, but NZ must be clear favourites for the World Cup now, and are in most ways a much better outfit than Australia. I don't know the eligibility rules for Origin, but that's the only reason I can see someone wanting to switch international loyalties from NZ to Oz.'" www.nrl.com/portals/nrl/RadEdito ... lained.pdf You have to have resided in NSW or Queensland prior to your 13th birthday. So for a lot of the Samoan boys, that would probably make them eligible for Origin. Not sure whether it would apply to the Kiwis.

They made the same late hits on our Smith when we played them - clear cynical tactic.

Even though there were repeated instances of Johnson being taken out after the kick, they weren't hits as such, more dragged to the ground. It was an obvious tactic to keep him out of the game, pee him off & tire him out. They were penalties however. Why anyone would want to take Smith out of the game is another question.

Agreed.
I thought that Cronk stood deeper to prevent the Kiwis doing the same to him.
A tactic we should employ when playing the Wolves or Wigan, IMV the best two teams in putting pressure on the kicker in our game.

Standing deeper is alright provided you have enough power and accuracy to make up for being further back.

Surely late hits on kickers are the preserve of the touch judges who should keep an eye on such things? Who were they?

Thing is, unless it's clear foul play - i.e. the hit is high or dangerous - TJs never flag for a kicker being prevented from chasing up his own kick and putting the rest of the chase onside.

It's clearly something the Australians have worked on, which is by the letter of the law illegal but they know they're never going to get penalised for.

Smart play and smart coaching, exploiting weak officiating.

A happy coiincidence that the RU Autumn Internationals rendered him unnavailable. I have total respect for the guy as a player of both codes, but he's just not a great commentator and is now getting into the "grumpy old man" phase of his life. You know the type, older, more detached from the actual game he's watching and likes to constantly make comments using his own brand of geriatric logic without any real basis in reality.

A bit like head butting a kicker and key playmaker in the face during a big game and passing it off as an accidental clash of heads.

In the Saturday game Australia got away with murder with late hits - very delibertately not going high, but hitting a player long after he is expecting to be hit is dangerous in it's own way. They also seemed impervious to being penalised for putting a third man into the tackle after the ref had called held and the tackled player was getting up to play the ball. Officials intimidated by the Kangeroos? Can't imagine

I wouldn't class Luke Dorn as a kicker...

I think he's talking about Monaghan on Sinfield in the 2012 GF.

Why are you going on about posters on the SSer boards during a message about Jonathan Davies?!

Hehe!

And the head butt wasn't accidental either.

Even if the Australian 'tackles' on Johnson weren't necessarily dangerous in themselves, they were often very late, so should have been penalised for that alone. The third man flop was allowed too much for both sides.

Exactly.
It seems to my (admittedly) jaundiced eyes that Bentham is so desparate to get games down under that he turns a blind eye to so many offences that if it were the Rhinos he'd penalise.
Cameron Smith is a truly great player but the amount of messing about at the PTB he gets away with is unbelievable.