Not bad for a player who according to his coach could not defend!!!

Either the coach's opinion was flawed or Ellis has suddenly learned everything in six months!!!!

So our whitewash of the Kiwis was a fluke? We're considerably better than any team bar Oz and Kiwis. Despite our best efforts to lose to the Kumuls in the WC. We'll be much better in the four nations but no doubt behind the Kangapoos once more.

all these young up an comming pommy players are going to give it too us

Put the Kiwi forwards with the Aussie backs and you have one hell of a side - the hookers apart - Aussies don't have any real star forwards

They don't need to, they have proper halfbacks who can really control games so don't need a "creative" loose forward, they also have quality centres who can make the most of the ball they get. Our halfbacks tend to be one trick ponies, Pryce would probably make something close to a genuine international centre if he tried but his feint and side step do nothing at the highest level, McGuire's fine with his speed and support play but ropey in defence, not a particularly great tactical kicker and isn't going to create a lot against an Aussie side, Burrow is a bit of a novelty with his scampering runs taking advantage of poor lateral movement in the big men, but then he gets his arris handed to him on a plate by Stan the Man and some kid from the NRL reserve grade when England played PNG.

The Aussie forwards are comfortable in the knowledge that the halfbacks will guide them around, all they need to do is the grunt work and stick to the game plan. Our forwards don't have the same level of structured game plan so we end up expecting more from them.

tbf the kiwis under gary kemble were a rabble.

they couldnt beat an egg then.


you were lucky to beat png

price and civinocva are amongst the best forwards in teh world.

and just the forwards at saint george are better than any youll find elsewhere.

i wouldnt swap our forwards for anybody

I disagree both are now well past their best and Ben Craegh apart the Saints pack is nothing to write home about IMO Poore is no great shakes his inclusion in origin confirms my point about the lack of depth/quality in the Aussie forwards

Petero Civoniceva
Brent Kite
Josh Perry
Anthony Watmough
Glenn Stewart

Serge A. Storm
"Lack of depth/quality in the Aussie forwards"

Yeah you have a point.
Even the castoffs and older players like Menzies and Buderus and Fitzgibbon would not be worth signing really.

Cameron Smith? Golden boot in 2007
Robbie Farah
Luke O'Donnell
Tom Learoyd-Lahrs
Ben Hannant
Michael Crocker
Sam Thaiday
Dallas Johnson
Ashley Harrison

I recall a Manly pack that punched holes in the Leeds defensive line at will a few months ago, the same team that languished down the bottom of the NRL for the next few months when they came home.

I doubt the Kangaroos would swap many players with England.

englands forward pack dominate every test match

yeah thats why saints are coming first in the nrl

Someone tell Petro that over the last ten years of destroying poms and Kiwi's at Test level that it was all a dream and Stuart Fielden is the best in the world!

To my surprise. Gareth Ellis leads the missed tackle count at the Tiges with 44 in 16 games. 2.8 per game. 459 tackles made though. So that's around 1 in 11 tackles missed. Only Farah and morris have made more tackles.

However he does come fourth in metres run. 1581m. Only Tuiaki, Gibbs and Ryan are above him.

The worst tackler is a soft as sh*t pack.


He should be proud.

Why are Australia the best in the world - because their backline is so superb and when that fails to fire they get beat.

The fact that the Dragons are top of the table says much about Bennett and his abilities as a coach.

That should earn you your reach around!

Would you like me to explain tackle effectiveness rates to you? On those figures Ellis is around 91%, which will probably be around the average for forwards in the NRL.

1.50 favourites now because of our forward pack..

yes its our backs that are the big difference but our younger forwards more than match yours.

CMON YOU AUSSIE posters . you got to give england credit where credit is due . they have some very good forwards

Stuart Fielden is the best in the world.

And Dennis Moran is World Class.

And Andrew Farrell is the best player on Earth.

And Poms don't know a damn thing about Rugby League!

You are so 2004.
Is Dennis Moran still alive?

No one here knows.

Going to SL means a player is no longer of any importance, therefore we stop following their progress.

Hows Toni Carroll going

Injured, but you've missed the point.

He came back to a competition you see, so he became important again.