There's a slight spot of method in the madness. I know a lot of sides do struggle enough in the winter months, and with summer being the traditional time for people to be away, you're going to stretch sp resources even further.

Just a theory, like.

Because all the kids go on holiday then.

i wonder if the games were played in the summer months,the extra players who might be encouraged to play(not just because of the weather but possibly because they wouldnt be playing football or even union)might just outweigh those who might be away on a 2 week holiday?
my local cricket club doesnt seem to have much trouble recruiting players.

Like I said, it was a theory.

Cricket is a very different sport. IIRC, cricket is the sport with the most participants in Britain...

Good post. Playing in the summer would attract new talent without a doubt. And obviously, it'll be light nights too. I remember at Portico Panthers, we had to train in the dark, cos there was no floodlights!

It's things like this that will stop us ever catching up and overtaking the Aussies.

People that take pleasure in pulling England to bits over last nights performance need to look at the quality that proved to be the deciding factor of the result more closely

Englands forwards equalled both the Aussie and the Kiwi pack's throughout the series, but we are sadly lacking the International quality backs
to cause them any problems out wide

This must have been a wonderful incentive to take into a test match, the fact that if you can contain everything that a side can possibly throw at you in the forwards but in the knowledge that their backline will not be able to trouble you out wide

How can any team defend for 80 minutes against super star players like Thurston, Lockyer, Inglis and Slater?

If you can, then i'd have thought that the coach of NSW would have worked out how to do it also in the games that count, because Queensland have put NSW to the sword in much the same way in recent years

Jarryd Hayne is a player that was voted the NRL player of the season, but he has hardly made an inpact throughout the whole series, Folau was also missing due to injury, sadly we don't have such luxuries

I don't think anyone is pulling England to bits. People are chewing the fat over what might have been and what wasn't, but there isn't anything wrong in that.

We needed to contain their backs and we did so pretty well for 60 minutes and then either through exhaustion, the loss of Shenton (so having to change things around) or a collective mental nosedive (or a combination of all three), we stopped trying to contain them. Stop making the effort with the Aussies and because they have such skillful backs, they will blow away the opposition.

It's a shame their score ended so high because it wasn't a true reflection of the match as a whole.

Inglis is an absolute freak. Pace of a sprinter, build of a Prop. If I'd won the £45m last week, I'd be on the phone to Eammon now offering to bring him over, no matter what the cost.

Aye, he can have £100k a year and his missus can have a £1m one off payment, that should tempt him.

The real problem for england is that he isnt a freak, johns, lockyer, thurston, slater, inglis, the conveyor belt of freaks continues. I forget his name but they have a 17yr old lad who is just like inglis but faster, worrying for us

Fair point; Australians are all freaks.

Jamal Idris, will be a scary day when both he and Inglis line up in the centres for Australia

thats the lad, thanks ryan!