Quote ="Saddened!"Bit dramatic? I thought the concept worked well. It was a far tougher and more relevant challenge than beating up France by 60. The Exiles were very entertaining and their commitment certainly put to bed any thoughts of them not trying. I really enjoyed the game and with a crowd of 13,000 on, it looks a success to me. Make it a 3 game series next year, drop Wakefield and Quins from SL and only promote Widnes. Play the games on Challenge Cup weekends and give teams with more than 3 playing International Origin a bye. International Origin will never reach the heights of the NRL's showpiece competition but it could IMO grow to three 20,000 crowds and become a firm fixture in the calendar.
You are just in a mard because your precious team lost. Warrington fans have been banging on about how strong and nigh on unbeatable your squad is, but you proved that wrong by relying on the Origin players backing up.'"
Of what relevance is the attendance? It's completely irrelevant in the scheme of things. Crowds do not better coaches and players make. The idea behind the game is pointless also. Having what was considered a harder game than a test against \France will achieve what exactly? We all already know how good the Aussies and Kiwis are, how will this one game change that? What would that game have told McNamara that he didn't already know about his squad?
SOO is 34 players chosen who all have a shot at the Kangaroo jumper. This game is 17 England players apparently trying to get better by playing pension pot fillers. Where's the competition for the shirt or the improvement behind the scenes?
Send McNamara and a few others to an NFL training camp to learn all they can about physical and mental preparation and how to extract maximum performance from an athlete, never mind farting about in Union like he seems to be doing.
