England-80 Wales-12
England-44 France-4
England-48 France-4

How can the RFL justify this competition? We'd have been better off having a 3-way format consisting of England, England Knights and the Exiles.

I went to Craven Park last week and although a decent crowd turned up, I found the game completely boring to watch. I've had more fun watching amateur rugby, and even that's probably a massive under-statement!

Sam Tomkins recently told Sky Sports [i"We've dominated Wales and France at the weekend put out a strong team and played relatively well to their own standards, but our defensive efforts have been outstanding in the last couple of weeks and contributed to the one-sided scorelines."[/i

In other words Sam, the opposition are absolutely pants and we are kidding no-one, certainly not the Aussies and Kiwis anyway.

See more:
[urlhttp://www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/15314/8233787/England-s-Sam-Tomkins-is-happy-with-the-quality-of-opposition-in-the-Autumn-Series[/url

Roll on the NEW Super League season!

I suppose it's gone completely as expected. The moaners will be out in force, but England needed to play someone in preparation for the World Cup. The more time the players spend together the better, it's just a shame the opposition are so far behind. Gutted the attendances have been so low, especially when you see the crowds the onion lot have had over the weekend. But, RL folk can't even get behind Challenge Cup semi-finals, never mind an international...

waste of time

Not really learned anything and been a pointless exercise IMO half the squad aren't playing anyway so you can't say we've gelled. All we've done is extend an already extremely long season and shortened players pre-season. I'd rather we would be going into World Cup year fresh.

I just fail to see what france or wales got out of this as england got nothing. All it has done is give Steve Mcnamara some wins on his record which he needed considering how bad his reign has been.

We could have used this competition as an opportunity for England Knights (fringe players) to put themselves in the shop window ahead of next year's World Cup, even then I suspect we'd have easily won the competition.

As linger05 mentioned, none of the teams have remotely taken anything away from this series!

England winning it in hand is no surprise. Tough to call it a competition though, such was the ease of England's victory. The trophy presentation I have just seen reflects that perfectly, pretty much shoved at Sinfield as soon as they could get a camera to him!

I have been very disappointed with the French effort in particular. I don't think I'm alone in expecting better from them. They were awful against Wales, a fixture which only had a competitive scoreline due to the amount of errors - without doubt the worst game I have seen this season. Their attacking structure against England, particularly tonight, has been laughable.

Didn't expect much from Wales and they didn't disappoint. They have a long road ahead of them, especially with the defections of young talents such as Rhys Evans. They desperately need Lee Briers to play for them in the World Cup.

You could say that England have benefited from having an extended period together, but with so many injured and rested players to come back into the fold even that is open to question. We have integrated a few players who should be around for the World Cup but even against this level of opposition we have seen some dumb performances, Hock in particular although others will spring to mind if and when I have another look at the games. To their credit they have been very professional in their approach and have been ruthless defensively.

A thoroughly worthwhile exercise.

The England squad’s belief will be sky high, with some scintillating performances & team structures beginning to gel in preparation for our assault on rectifying forty years of hurt.

It’s also been good for the expansionist areas of France & Wales to go up against a side oozing class in their slow & steady progression to bolster the global ranks. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

Ok it may take quite a few years but the futures so bright, we just need some more depth in France, one team isn’t enough, oh, & another assault into Wales as the Union game is dying – we must strike now.

I was a little jaded after another repetitive SL season, however, after this series I feel invigorated & full of hope for the future.

Oh, & to have Rugby Leagues version of Ronaldo in the England squad today was an added bonus.

I love Rugby League me.

The RFL have f***** up by not being able to predict the future. At half-time in the three England games, as it became apparent that England were staqrting to dominate, a competent governing body would have kneecapped a few England players to even up the contest. Farce, etc.

A farce and a disgrace

It's better for England to have some games together than no games at all. The squad needs to develop a bit of cohesion and by the looks of things there's still quite a way to go on that front.

Using this logic, there's no point in England ever playing Australia in a series. What do Australia get out of playing England?

Infact, may as well just announce the RLWC final as Aus v NZ. What's the point eh.

enjoyed it

been a good comp for england, spent time in camp together and needed the games for prep for the big one next year

we knew england would win

wales and france can also take something into the world cup next year..all preperation

waste of time, should have played 3 games v Exiles instead (but guess they are all back home)
RL AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE = A JOKE

Absolutely! That's the the thing, this is sound logic and it's about time we faced the facts, return to touring as the 'Lions' and just play the Aussies and NZ.

It's going to take 20-30 year's to develop a strong European International tournament and at present, England seem to be stuck in a wedge between World Class International RL (Aussies/NZ), and p**s poor RL (Every other International team).

We should be inviting PNG to tour for a change....I just want something different!

That's definitely sound logic

There were two choices available to the RFL, host a European Tri-Nations tournament, or host nothing at all and leave the national team to not play a game for the best part of a year.

Consider this a pre season for the World Cup next year, consider it a team bonding exercise if nothing more, but it was far better than the alternative.

As for Wales and France, they seem to be in a position similar to the one Italy and Argentina have been in in recent years in Union entering the 6 and 4 nations comps. Hasn't done them much harm given some of the scores they have had put on them.

Spot on J O N N Y,
it was France and Wales or nothing and although its been boring and predictable, the games will be of some benefit come next year.
We could have afforded to try some other options though, like Chris Hill, there are others who MacNamara could have had a look at.
The point is that unless the likes of Wales and France have games of this type, they will never be able to develop.

I wish people would stop moaning it was 3 games for us to watch instead of nothing at all, and when you look at our and wingers they look big and good something we have not had for some years and 2 players that can play at fullback, and that is not counting our oversea players you never know we might win the w cup at last

Meanwhile, over in the Onion department:

Scotland 22-51 New Zealand
England 54-12 Fiji
France 33-6 Australia

Do these one-sided processions signal the imminent demise of rugby union, too? No? Funny, that. There's something very weird about your average League depressive.

we know one thing.

Whatever 17 England put out in a game it can only include any one of the following three Westwood, Hock and McIlorum.

If all 3 played the combined penalty count to the opposition would mean England would have no chance

There is something about how fans of our game view it as fans often see things as a glass half empty rather than a glass half full.

The France Australia result is quite telling though as Union is very much on the downhill slope in Australia. Participation in Rugby League is five times that of Union in terms of the number of registered players and League viewing figures outstrip Union by miles.

God i'm sick of people whinging and moaning about this series. The majority of northern hemisphere international rugby union is a joke (teams are average at best) but that didn't stop huge crowds watching all those beatings dished out over the weekend.

And, McNamara's going to be in charge for the World cup so we all better get used to it and just get behind the team...

The win for France being very much the exception, that result could and probably will be reversed next time they play, and even though the All Blacks are universally recognised as the best in the world , they have only won 1 WC in recent years, and of course there being 5/6 countries in the top level with another 6/7 just below them that can take the occaisional top scalp

I suppose the argument would be should England have taken a break as Aus and NZ did or was it important to give the players a chance to form a group and a chance to gel.
For me I think it was worth it even though it was very one sided but I suppose time will tell