And we wonder why we never beat the Aussies buy rewarding mediocrity. We'll be in the exact same position in 12 month time. What other sport is the head coach of the nation team an ASSISTANT coach at club level?

As long as we play well again those big Aussies and kiwis who cares what the score is. Pathetic!!!

If we suppose he is our best english coach why does it matter if he's an assistant? Also, it may be that as assistant at a top NRL club represents a much higher level that at the best SL clubs and so England's chances may be enhanced?

He isn't our best English coach.

England RL is a much higher setup and standard than Sydney roosters. If he is over the other side of the world, how is he going to have any idea how the SL players over here are performing? I presume we have no mid season test? What about these England training camps, are they been done away with as well?

Other than having a full time coach,i think this is by far the best solution to "what is"an odd international coaching job.
Hopefully he and the NRL players can take England to the promised land for the first time in 40 odd years

He's not our best coach, there are several of a much higher standard who would be a better pick.

Wane, McDermott, Powell, Anderson and probably a host of others who could do the job better and be UK based.

Ridiculous decision.

Who cares?

Kearney won when he was an assistant at melbourne and got his team to the final after being sacked by parra for being seemingly clueless.

I'm not a fan of mcnamara but some of the criticism has been over the top or inane.

I know we should be having top quality coaches coaching England like Brian Noble and tony smith, they'd transform the Enlgland side. Oh hang on...

Fwiw ithink this is the best outcome, England keep stability and SM gets to coach in the best league in RL

Stephen Kearney was an assistant at Melbourne when he took the NZ job, he also won the World Cup that year. He is also now an assistant at the Broncos. So if its good enough for them, why is it not good enough us. The last time I checked the Roosters are 'a much higher setup and standard than the Brisbane Bronco's'.



I get the point that he wont be able to keep check on the Super League players, but im sure there are others in the setup who will take over that role. At least he will be closet to England's best players in the NRL. I just don't see why its a problem him being an assistant in the NRL, its certainly better than being a head coach at many Super League clubs.

Stephen Kearney coaches in a league where most of his squad plays.

Nuff said.

SO we're stuck with 'Victor Meldrew'....superb.
He is definitely the most miserable coach/manager of any professional Sports team.

Hardly. The point was him being an assistant in the NRL is seen as some what of an embarrassment for the sport yet the NZ coach is an assistant in the NRL and yet thats fine. Why does he have to be coaching in the same league as all his players. A good 6-8 NRL players will make the England starting squad. Plenty of modern technology to help him keep up to date with the Super League based players along with other coaches back in the UK. I dont particularly want him at the Roosters or England but he is so we have to deal with it.

Im happy enough to see him stay on.the guy has got us to the last 4 nations final and to within 20 seconds of a world cup final so has done ok in my book.dont see any list of great coaches knocking the door down of the rfl so why not have some continuity?

You never heard of Mick McCarthy in football then I guess.

I don't care if he is miserable what I do care is is he good enough to coach England and if been in the aussie coaching set up helps great stuff

He makes me laugh because of his dry sense of humour of course its only my opinion .whereas McNamara is just plain boring IMO

For 1, I'm quite happy with the announcement.
Maybe it was the only option, as nobody else wanted the poisoned chalice.

Whoever is to England coach won't change the fact that we are the 3rd best Rugby league national team, (who can occasionally cause the odd upset).

Why would it benefit us?
He didn't learn anything from being and unsuccessful coach at Brdaford to being the same for England.
It changed Bradford from being SL Champions and World Champions when he was appointed to being a relegation team when he departed.
So why does anyone think he'll learn anything in Sydney?
Still selecting his favourite players rather than form players.
The man can't coach and the RFL can't find a good coach hence he's retained. Can't make my mind up who's more useless, McNamara or the RFL!

Yep, Wayne Bennett’s a load of laughs.

At least McNamara will be able to see the spine of the England team, plus the future opposition.

So many "experts" on coaching, whose knowledge of the game could be written on a pinhead!

The sharp end.

There are reasons why Great Britain/England will not beat the Aussies, except on rare occasions, but to ensure that we do beat them regularly then that involves change of the game in this country and hard work.

A concept beyond some people.

Irrelevant. He will get tapes of every SL game which is probably more beneficial to a coach than watching it live anyway. Just hope his Mrs likes watching RL.

Agree 100%. To me he is a very good coach & the descision to stick with him wiil be the correct one. There is no other English coach apart from him. He will gain a wealth of experiance with the roosters. We just need a competant UK based assistant & if the French dont want him Agar is the man for me.

You know the coach/manager of EVERY professional sports team? Wow, impressive.

Were you at Wembley for the semi-final? Third best international team? What were you watching? We lost to the Kiwis only because of a couple of mistakes - we should have beaten them by 10 points or more, based on relative performances on the day. England were superb but were unlucky in the final moments of the game. Credit to Macbanana and our guys for what should have been a stunning result and don't disparage a great team display by saying we're only third best........because we aren't.

I'm quite happy to consider us below Papua New Guinea and even France, plus after some of the displays in the World Cup even Italy and the USA!!!!

Yes I was at Wembley and I was as gutted as anyone. Yes that performance was fantastic but we still lost. Like I said we can win the occasional game against either NZ or Australia.
I went to all the England games, all but 1 of the NZ games and many more during the RLWC (even going to the Samoa v France match in Perpignan).
My original post was about defending the reappointment of the coach I still believe we are the 3rd best (yes 3rd best) rugby league playing nation. By us
Keeping the current coach we can continue to improve and try and close the gap.