If you are going to change the halfbacks, it is Sinfield who should go first. He's never a halfback in a million years. Loose forward or nothing.

Even though he never plays there? That number 13 on his back can be confusing to people who don't actually watch the game.

In fact he played there 3 times last year in SL. Out of 27 games.

You know, if he'd spent his Leeds career with the number 6 jersey, if he were ever selected at loose forward, the same people would come out with comments like
"He clearly a half back rather than a loose"

True!

Spot on. If you concede 36 points you are not up to standard whichever way you look at it. I can udestand the "glass half full" mentality but so many people on here think we can feed the 5,000 from a leftover pie.

How true. I was thinking exactly this last year, when Aus put 34 on NZ, a week before NZ beat them in their own back yard in the Final. That's the sort of substandard you need.

We could have beaten Australia...but in the moments that matter, we didn't deliver. Australia didn't bully us or look miles better....just were far more clinical when it mattered. Yes, they had a few loose carries and pulled some stunts - high shots and slowing the game down in the tackle...but at the end of the day we lost.

I think we only have one beating of Australia in us each year (if that) so beating them on Saturday wouldn't have been a change in power. I think if we can play with that confidence again and with a fully fit pack on the field then we can beat them.....I for one hope that one win comes in 2 weeks in the final. No one will remember Wembley if that happens.

NZ are strong, but we can and must beat them.

Again, no reason we can't win the 4N's people...just need to deliver where it matters for 2 weeks running from now onwards.

excellent post!!!!

Ben Westwood conceding 4 penalties and missing a tackle on the try line, they scored
Kirk Yeaman being out of position, they scored
Tom Briscoe letting the ball bounce from every up & under, England put under pressure
Kevin Sinfield not paying attention leading to 3 knock ons, they scored
Jamie Peacock not paying attention leading to a knock on, they scored
Heighington gets run over by Williams, they score
Ellis, Graham & Peacock getting injured, England lose all go forward and lose
3 sets on the Aussie line, no composure by anyone on the team, no points from it

Instead of singling one player out, why not show a bit of balance? Chase has been far from the worst player so far, and has had to do the job of 2 halfbacks because Sinfield has been too slow, not paying attention and generally not been effective.



And how do you get that? So far Widdop has done nothing in the game time he's got and when he plays for Melbourne they don't trust him to do much either, everything goes through Slater, Smith & Cronk first.

Cas Fan in "I love Chase" Shocker.

You criticising other players (often wrongly), does not in anyway detract from the fact that Chase cost England the chance of winning that game.

Without Chase's errors, those other players wouldn't even have been defending!

Take off your mucky yellow tinted glasses.

Erm....so Chase missing touch from the tap 20 giving Australia the ball inside their half and scoring from long range is Rangi Chase's fault? Not all 13 players on the pitch for not being good enough to stop a team scoring from 70 metres out.

The 2 on 1 ball steal was a loose carry so should have been a knock on, scrum to England, the pass at the end resulted in an interception from the England player not even looking (for the 6th time in the game).

It's all well and good blaming 1 player in a team game, well done you're making 1 player the scapegoat because he isn't "English" ever since he was picked this whole forum has looked bigoted with the appalling attitude towards not just Chase being picked but Heighington and for some bizarre reason Jack Reed too...and people wonder why nobody takes the game seriously with "fans" like you





Wakey fan in bigoted attitude shocker

if it was anyone else making these mistakes, nobody would be saying anything...like where is the KEVIN SINFIELD SHOULD BE DROPPED thread? Shocking kicking percentage and multiple handling errors in both games so far.



You take off your "saved by the Welsh" glasses.

I'm not saying Chase didn't make mistakes, I'm saying blaming him solely for the loss is really incredibly stupid when 9/10ths of the team all made at least 1 error, the main reason England lost is losing Ellis & Graham to game ending injuries and Peacock playing on one leg.

When all 3 were fit Chase, Roby & Tomkins were killing the Aussies pretty much every set, they were too fast and elusive for them.

You are deluded!

When Chase stupidly kicked for touch, the Aussies gained the ball (tackle 1) on OUR 30m line.

Loose carry??? Do you really, and I mean really, believe that??

I believe Chase was poor, not because he is a Cas player, or because he is a New Zealander, I believe he was poor...because he was POOR.

He was England's worst player, who forced other England players into errors through his own stupidity and selfishness. With the kick, the strip and the attempted interception he cost us 3 trys.

I thought he went well against Wales, but totally lost the plot on Saturday. He can't do his one-legged skip past decent players.

You racist bigot; you are Jim Davidson and I claim my five pounds.

Which is why in the first 20 minutes he was ripping the Aussies to bits, right?

The only reason the backs struggled is Ellis, Peacock & Graham getting injured - you cannot beat the Aussies with a pack that involves Wilkin & Jones-Buchanan.

You're the deluded one if you think:
A. Chase was the worst player on the pitch
B. He did nothing in the entire game
C. It was his fault other players made mistakes

Kirk Yeaman was easily the worst player on the pitch, he looked totally lost and out of his depth.

Now don't bother replying, you're back on the ignore list because your stupidity is mind numbing,



You're the worst of the lot!

Ripping it up???!!!

Chase didn't make a single line break! He didn't put a player through a gap! He didn't do the job a half back!

He DID gift the Aussies possession at least twice, directly leading to trys. He DID stupidly jump out of the line looking for an interception (a cynic would say getting out of the way to avoid tackling).

To help you further...Wilkin is poor, JJB went ok (especially having had to play way more minutes than planned due to the injuries), Sinfield will never, ever be an international SO and Yeaman has always been overrated.

Westwood was one of the players to miss Gallen but guess who the other one was? (conveniently omitted from your post)

I can forgive Westwood to a degree because he had made around 34 other effective tackles by that time, t'other fella probably hadn't made one!

Briscoe failed to catch one bomb but caught everything else on the full and looked solid under the high ball after his one initial mistake.

Watch the tap 20/ kick for touch again, not one, none of the England players knew he was going for that kick. None of them chased it and Australia fielded the ball and ran it straight back into England's 30meter zone.

Stupid strip by chase to give away that penalty, no different to that of Dale Morton in the extra time CC game which gifted Cas the win, except Mortons a kid and can be forgiven while Chase is MoS and an international therefore it's unforgivable and dumb.

Other incidents like stepping back infield when a simple pass outside would have given us a 3 on 1 situation.

The point about other players is fairly mute though as they really are England lads whilst we've hammered a square peg into a round hole with Chase, least we could expect is that he's worth the trouble but he's not, in fact he's not even close. Put zmcGuire in at 7 for the rest of the tournament and chalk the Chase choice down to a bad experience.

So it's back to the bigoted attitudes then?

I'm done with this thread now, it just shows the narrow minded idiocy of the bigots on here, I bet half of you vote BNP too.

British jobs for British people eh?

if sinfield had of kicked all his goals and briscoes try been correctly give.......its 6 POINT GAME

Biggoted!






Wake up fella, Chase is laughing his nuts off at being allowed to play for England on a flimsy 3 year residency rule. Hes no more English than I am American and I've spent more time there than he as here.

Think you got it spot on mate.I saw the same game as you.I actually thought chase started the game well but drifted in and out the game due to the whack on the head.Sinfield isnt international standard im afraid , and ive also got to question Mcnamaras decision to play John Wilkin.I really dont know what this guy offers.We suffered losing Peacock,Graham,Ellis and if you think were missing Burgess too its near enough our 1st choice pack on the side lines .Id definately start with Widdop and chase at halfbacks

Got that right. He is way too predictable and shouldn't be in the halves!

As for Westwood, he was average at best, gave away two silly penalties that the ref got right on both calls.

That's an absolute gem of a post, for all the wrong reasons.

We're not as good as Australia. However, if we can a couple of things, we'd be able to really give them a game.

Firstly, dumb mistakes - both high-risk solo plays such as Chase's kick, and those caused by general lack of awareness. Cut those out and we'd at least make Australia work harder for metres. I'd say a lot of the difference here is due to SL players being able to clock off for a few minutes every game. They aren't used to concentrating for the full 80 minutes.

Secondly, defence within our 20 m line. I wouldn't call it amateurish, but a failure to read and adapt to very high quality passing and running - generally caused by inexperience. England desperately need to shore up this aspect of our defence, and ought to look at how Australia themselves defend close to the line. We seem to make the cardinal mistake of standing back and watching things unfold, giving Lockyer and Thurston ages to make decisions, and also able to make killer passes without a hand laid on them.

The difference between England this year and previously is that whilst our defence is still a problem, we actually look like we have points in us as well. We won't beat Australia without improving defence, but our attack looks more promising, and we have at least 4 outside backs who look pretty good.

Anyway, personally I'd move Sinfield to 13 and put Widdopp on from the start.

I don't understand why so much negativity is being directed to the Chase kick to touch while clearly not working out it definately wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Heighington miss on Williams for the same try.

I would encourage England to try the same tactic again, the optional kick for touch really can change the momentum of a game and even though it didn't work as planned on Saturday it often does and when it doesn't the opposition still have 65+ metres to go.

I'm not saying that they should do this all of the time but new things have to be tried, just knocking out the sets doesn't work we need invention and guile to beat the Australians I'm sure thats why Chase has been and will continue to be selected.