Thought Gareth Ellis getting mom was a strange choice, i though James Graham or James Roby deserved it , Graham for his sheer hard work and Roby for changing the pace of the game and generally looking very sharp after coming on for a well below par Scott Moore.

there were many who had reasonable games but very hard to pick one. many players just do not understand each others play yet but thought graham and JP did well , sinny stepped up his game in second half but i just don't like the backs at all. still can't understand why Little robbie is not playing.

i'm really worried about Shenton against the Aussies and Kiwis, he just doesn't look strong enough, Smith should have tried to get Keith out of retirement. I also think Smith is a bit of a hypocrit because he says he's picking on form yet Myler had not played a single game since July.

I thought Myler should have got it and surprised that was not written into his contract along with an England berth when Smith signed him for Warrington

Sam Burgess was the best player.

Specifically on last night's performance, if only he could hold on to the ball. A core skill of the game overlooked by too many.

He made a couple of errors, but so did all the pack, he was the best going forward, some good offloads and good defence.

It has been rumoured that Keith phoned Smith and told him that he was prepared to play.

How can you then say your picking a squad for the future and pick Lee Smith who is leaving the game for RU. Very strange.

England will have to improve drastically on Friday's performance to threaten the Aussies or New Zeland's place in the final. We will see how good a coach Smith really is.

Maybe he knows something we don't? Or maybe he expects Smith to return after his contract runs out.

Smith is a fool if he is picking squads for 'the future' he should go into eah and every International game and tournament with the right team to win said game and tournament.

International games are too rare to be picking squads for the future, we need to be in the here and now. You don't pick players because they may be good in a few years they need to be good now!

smith is a tool!

That's a bit harsh fella!!

no!.....no!.....no!



You'll have the usual suspects choking on their toast and marmalade

I wasn't counting but he dropped Graham's defence splitting pass, he failed to ground the ball for a try in the second half and there were other instances. I'm only highlighting the most obvious ones where his poor handling skills cost England points.

If we play as lax as that when we meet either of the antipodean teams they’ll murder us.

IIRC he spilled the ball the last three times he touched it inside the French 20 metre area.

Are Opta producing match stats for the 4N as they did with SL?

I bet he's gutted.

Burgess seemed to rush out of the line a couple of times too. As he tried harder, he seemed to make more mistakes. Hopefully it was just a case of first night nerves and he should know what he did wrong.

He's won half a dozen caps now hasn't he?

Certainly been around long enough that he shouldn't still be making rookie errors.

even the best make errors. Its called being human

Did TVOC ever doing OPTA stats for the GF. I must have missed it of he did. theye would have made interesting reading

I only did the stats that were available (free to air) via the SL website. Unfortunately they are only updated after each regular round and exclude the play offs, challenge cup and world club challenge fixtures.

Trade papers may have covered some of the stats but I don't subscribe to any of them and being one of the many 'out of towners' they aren't exactly easy to find in rural Lincolnshire.

Ah yes. I forgot you were a fellow out of town bandwagoner like me

it was actually one of the poorest games ive seen Burgess have.