Rubbish.

Are you familiar with Steven MacNamara?

Those players probably would have been fine if we had a coach who was bothered. Also, it might have helped if Bennett had played Lomax in his actual position considering he’s had a better season than the other 6’s in this side.

He retired because he's injured, so hardly scraping the barrel.

And Liam Watts and only taking 2 genuine wingers on tour and his dour tactics and his poor use of Daz Clark and his loyalty in selection players who've been out of form all season. I could go on.

No it isn’t, unfortunately the coach is and his obsession with picking NRL players who are consistently crap at international level has resulted in a shambles of a tour. You know the coach is the problem when someone like Hastings goes from being man of steel in an average side to looking completely clueless. Injuries haven’t helped but what do you expect when you pick six half backs, for only two of them to play there, yet just two wingers and two centres. Bennett should go and take the likes of McGillvary, Hodgson and Widdop with him.

This is emotional, even hysterical, nonsense.

Wayne Bennett has won six (6) Grand Finals in Australia with two (2) different clubs. He is regarded as one of the greatest rugby league coaches of all time. That is why the RFL asked him to coach England and Great Britain.

Gareth Widdop was close to being the winner of the Dally M award in 2018. He was the captain of St. George-Illawarra Dragons, and highly regarded not only by his coach, Paul McGregor, but also by the NRL pundits.

Joshua Hodgson was the co-captain and lynchpin of the successful Canberra Raiders team. He was rated the number three hooker in the NRL (after Cameron Smith and Damien Cook) in 2019 by the NRL pundits.

All of that is irrelevant. What has Wayne Bennett’s previous successes as a coach got to do with his under performance as England and GB coach now? Anyway he last won a Grand Final in 2010, he isn’t a top coach any more.

As for Widdop, when has he ever played well on the International stage? Never is the answer, overrated, offers no creativity and after watching him during this tour, doesn’t offer a kicking game either. He’s also barely played this season and is only picked because he plays in the NRL. Similar applies to Hodgson, it’s incredible that he’s managed to be such a success in the NRL because he’s dire every tine he plays for England and now GB. Both should never play for England again.

Nobody has come up with convincing evidence that this is not the worst GB team ever. I think it is or is very close to being. No coach can work miracles. He’s at least made the defence reasonable. With a couple of potential retirements before RLWC 2021 things look bleak for that tournament.

But he HAS retired, sadly.

And we pick a second row to play centre and a HB on the wing, while drafting in a new winger for next week.
Watkins in an interesting inclusion on your list

and Hardaker should not have been playing centre, he should have played at FB instead of Coote.
Also, Roby, as good as he's been isn't required, we just have to play Clarke for much longer, maybe the full 80 - Hodgson for some reason just doesn't perform at International level.
It may just be me but, the squad seems unsettled and half of them look like they'd rather be somewhere else.

The early 80's were pretty woefull

We played much better than this under MacNamara

As much as I didnt rate McNamara, Bennett has been far worse, 6 half back and two wingers, errrm, WHAT!?

Can we beat PNG next week ? Don't know what their recent results have been like, but they must fancy their chances.

Woeful yet bizarrly enough we actually had enough chances to win it. Why does he persevere with widdop when he clearly isnt performing and we have William's sat in the stand. The squad selection was ridiculous and the tactics and skills on show In the games have been terrible. Props stood at first receiver in their 10 metre zone late in the tackle count? We need a coach who watches sl week in, week out

Yep. We can talk injuries but Ratchford, Charnley and S.Tomkins are all available and sat at home whilst aussies are representing the country (badly!)

Bennett lifted England when he first arrived but has taken us as far as he can now. Agree with others that it is clear he doesnt watch SL.

England could do with a morale boosting mid season game against a smaller nation, it will be tough to sell tickets for the Ashes tour based on what weve seen the last 2 weeks.

If you want to visualise the shocking decline of British RL go to Twitter, search ‘Andrew Ferguson’ ‘@AndrewRLP’ and see the charts he’s just put up of cumulative points v Aus and NZ. They rather support my point.

That's an indictment on coaching in this country. We just don't produce players with a high enough skill level.

To some degree I agree - from what I’ve seen skill and creativity are actively coached out. The fundamental problem though is a lack of kids playing the game. Until or unless we increase the number 10 fold we’ll keep losing.

I don't think skills are necessarily the problem. I just think our backs, in particular don't develop enough physically between 18 and 25. You can probably count on one hand the number of backs we've had in the last 20 years who could match the opposition's physicality. It looks men against boys at times.

Of the Ashes series I have seen both in England and Aus. I would select the 1984 team as the worst. Captained by Noble with Hanley on the wing and Schofield at centre. Lost 3-0. 1979 team out here ran it close also losing 3-0.

Until the RFL and Super League come to understand that they need to develop the game at the grass roots in London, Birmingham, Leicester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Belfast, there will be not enough talent emerging in the future for England or Great Britain to become a successful international competitor.

I would hope that we will soon see the return of franchising, with a Super League team from London and at least one of the other big cities mentioned above, as this would greatly help this process of grass roots development of talent.

Too many has been's and never was players from the NRL playing in Super League, because certain clubs have been to lazy to develop British talent

Sinfield's comments on Bennett's contract scare me slightly: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/50367304 ""Look at this series and the players that are missing," he added. "There's Sean O'Loughlin, Sam Burgess, James Roby, Luke Gale, Kallum Watkins, Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival." Is he deluded!!?? SOL - Soon to retiire SB - Medically retires Roby - Although for me a better option than Hodgson, is close to the end of his career Gale - Hasn't played for 2 years Watkins - has never recovered from injury. I will give him the other 2, as well as people like Tom Johnstone, Manfredi etc. Sounds like he might get a deal to the World Cup due to his last performance in getting to the final.

Sinfield's comments on Bennett's contract scare me slightly: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/50367304 ""Look at this series and the players that are missing," he added. "There's Sean O'Loughlin, Sam Burgess, James Roby, Luke Gale, Kallum Watkins, Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival." Is he deluded!!?? SOL - Soon to retiire SB - Medically retires Roby - Although for me a better option than Hodgson, is close to the end of his career Gale - Hasn't played for 2 years Watkins - has never recovered from injury. I will give him the other 2, as well as people like Tom Johnstone, Manfredi etc. Sounds like he might get a deal to the World Cup due to his last performance in getting to the final.