Quote ="Durham Giant"1, ball retention.
Too many of our forwards make crucial mistakes at vital times. Mossop, Tom B and Benny Westwood have a habit of dropping the ball.
2 Discipline
We cannot afford to give away too many penalties
Westwood and McIlorum and Chase cannot play in the same team and expect to win.
Chase and McIlorum need to concentrate on their performance not sticking their hand in opponents faces at every PTB.
3 Half Backs
are not creating enough to break down better defences. Passing the ball wide and exposing poor defence wont work against NZ.
McNamara does not know who to play at half back and in what combination.
4 Squad selection mistakes were made in the squad selection and it means S Burgess has to play at prop with Graham , Hill and G Burgess in the rotation.
5 The bench.
McNamara does not know what his best team is yet. Charnley or Briscoe on the wing. Burrow or McIlorum at hooker, What to do with Widdop, Sam B in the second row or Ferres and Farrell swapping around.
For England to have a chance all of the above need to be corrected, we need an error free game with superb discipline to give us a chance.
McNamara will not get it right.'"
OK, because I am a little bored at work…
Point 1. Mossop and T. Burgess will not be in the game day 17 so listing them is pretty irrelevant
Point 2. This goes two ways and in tough matches the Kiwis have lacked discipline in recent times
Point 3. This being the same half back pairing as the last England New Zealand match which England won 28-6
Point 4. Are you actually raising a four prop rotation of S. Burgess, G. Burgess, Hill and Graham as a negative? This is the best four prop rotation England/GB has had for as long as I can remember
Point 5. Seeing as though Widdop hasn’t got into the 17 man game day squad and Sinfield and Chase have been the consistent half back pairing for a few years now, I would assume from this that McNamara is pretty clear as to what his half back pairing should be. Ferres is clearly ahead of Farrell and I am not sure that a wing selection will cause lack of continuity. I grant you he has shuffled the hooking role around but come Saturday Roby will play the major role (whether that be the full 80 minutes, on from the start to be spelled by Burrow or to replace McIloram after 20 minutes. I suspect this is more about tactics though than a lack of knowledge of these players)
Apart from all this lot, your post was accurate
