I'm glad more than anything that we seem to have finally got a way of improving our playing standards in mid-season - the Exiles celebrations at the end showed how much they bought into the concept and it's definitely something that we should continue with and improve.

We have learnt far more in defeat than we ever would against any other side bar Aus/NZ. A couple of players who I previously thought weren't up to scratch at this level have handled the occasion well, namely Wilkin and Carvell. Westwood was outstanding defensively and Robinson was smart out of dummy half, a perfect foil for Roby when he comes back into the fold.

There were also some shocking performances however - I hope I'm wrong and I appreciate that he's had a bad injury, but on the evidence of the last two weeks against Saints and the Exiles it looks like father time has caught up with Peacock. The differences in the halfbacks was striking - Sinfield was way off the pace and surely cannot ever play in the halves for England again, and Myler did nothing to excite with ball in hand either, a great support player but did little more than catch and pass to the next man and we need much more from our 7. Compare and contrast with the Exiles, Leuluai was barking away left and right non-stop calling plays, and Chase looked dangerous every time he touched the ball, he put up an outstanding performance. You can't really judge our 1-5 as they got no decent ball whatsoever.

So how often has a half back combination of Myler and Sinfield player together? Especially with a hooking partnership of McIllorum and Robinson? Yeah they've played TONS together.

Thats where England looked poor tonight, I thought they did "ok" defensively, but our halfbacks were none existant. I was particularly looking forward to seeing Danny Brough play, unfortunate for the lad, and Lomax should have definately been in ahead of Sinfield.

i just wish we'd play with more flair though.i dont know if we'll beat em playing the conservative game,as they can do the graft, its the ball play that beats us.we need more off the cuff players

Had no choice tonight, we had no halves at all.

Still think we need to go back to a part time England coach. No quality coach is going to take that job over a full time super league one. (Although even then, there aren't that many good british coaches in sl)

Myler needs to get involved loads more at 1st receiver to be an international half. He may be able to float in and out of a game with Briers as his partner in the halves for wire but that does not cut it at international level. He is no organiser.

Macbanana should have played crabtree instead of peacock and brown should have had a call up. No proper recognized half back in the squad- shameful.

Erm, Myler? He didn't play well mind, but he is a recognised half back.

Presumably it was disallowed because Sam Tomkins, International Fullback dropped the ball. Unless I missed something, it was a terrible decision and the VR would have given it all day long if called on.

'Exiles' is now trending on twitter! Ranked higher than Prince Philip and Roberto Martinez!

Manu for England!

What a shambles.

This.

As most of us have said for weeks, playing out-of-position and supporting half backs was never going to work. I'd sooner have seen Sam in the HBs than Sinfield or Myler.

Still, I enjoyed the game - both sides took it seriously and it was a fiercely physical game, but perhaps England took it too seriously while the Exiles enjoyed it more and threw the ball around. The sad fact for England is we have 1 or 2 genuinely international standard players in each position and that's it. We weren't awful but lacked any real spark going forward.

As soon as peacocks name went on the team sheet it sent the message to everyone that it's name and not form that matters.

Agreed and he was very poor last night.

What struck me is that we had Shenton Left centre, Tom Briscoe Right Wing, Kevin Sinfield Stand off. What happened to picking players in form and in their correct positions.

It's England, we couldn't possibly do that.

It's to confuse the Aussies and Kiwis.

European RL and Logic. So incompatable.

Nice little end of season earner, without breaking a sweat, and holiday bonus for either the Kiwis or the Aussies in the 4 nations.

Someone convince me that the "tag" match last night was played with the full gusto of a SL game or even a "test" match.

If I was the Kiwi or Aussie coach I wouldn't be too worried about England as contenders, and that to me is so so sad, but hey, the experts have been saying since 1982 we are going the right way so maybe, one day, they will be right.

As things stand, I probably won't be around to see it though.

That was pretty dire. I think the last time I watched a GB or England team look as if they had an actual attacking plan, other than hoping for an opposition mistake or an unplanned individual break, Bobbie Goulding was playing for them.

The ironic thing is, that we probably do have more good attacking backs and halves in this country than we've had since the days of Jonathon Davies et al. Yet we picked two out-of-form halves at 6&7, one of whom isn't a half at all, and picked an in-form half at hooker and another at fullback. No need to repeat the previous accurate comments about tsome of the forwards being picked on history, not form.

So - terrible game, poor selections, woeful attacking performance, coach with track record of failure. It's all looking good for the 4 nations.

Big overhaul of that team needed for the end of season. It wont happen, but I would be looking to make probaby about 8 or 9 changes.

Tomkins
Briscoe, Yeaman, Bridge, McGillvray
Widdop, Brough
Graham, Roby, Carvell
Ellis, Westwood
Burgess

Morley, Robinson, Crabtree, Manu (I know that will be unpopular but I think the way England play requires someone like him who can run through a tackle and score from nothing, we dont have the skill to craft tries against Aus and NZ, at the end of the day its only like the tonnes of south sea islanders that have turned out Aus)

We don't need Manu, we have plenty players like him from the English game.

Name one. We have players who's overall game is as good, but we dont have anyone who is as hard to put down as Manu, give him the ball with a little bit of space and something will generally happen.

Like who?

Widdop and Brough will bring proper organisation and attacking ability. Hopefully the other players can keep up. Widdop looks dangerous everytime he has the ball, which hopefully translates into his international game. And Brough, seemingly according to this forum anyway, is the best possible choice at 7.

Joel Tomkins

He said like him, not better