Robbo nicks the ball.

No Widdop, S Tomkins, Morley and Ellis now.

Good ball steal from Robinson O'Loughlin back on and hes defence has been missed hes on for Widdop though

Oh - Ellis is on.

Ellis made no effort at all

Has sam come on for widdop?

Then kicks it straight down their throats. I'm guessing Brough is the regular kicker in play for the Giants?

You couldn't make this up

Brown at fb



McNamara brought to many important players off at once. Ellis, O'Loughlin and Tomkins.

It's exactly what McNamara would have wanted?

Poor second half display and lucky to hold on to the draw IMO. Can't understand the commentators saying McNamara will be happy with the display. It was a work out maybe, but cannot see NZ being very copncerned next week. Hope i'm wrong.

Pity sky couldn't have shown NZ versus Samoa, following this match.

Thoughts on the game

1 Robinson and brown at 6 & 7 aint good enough we looked flat and playing one man rugby it was shocking

2 kicking game is woefull

3 Defence they went at robinson everytime and it worked keep him in the middle so he's got back up

Overall pretty poor i thought the forwards did well they had to work overtime and it showed, widdop looked a bit dodgy in the 2nd half too much pressure and no help

The big worry is if we aint got sam we are screwed no attack and the aussies and kiwis will smash us

Well i hope Brown enjoys the rest of his holiday....totally out of his depth...no direction from him...worrying thing is though the kicking game...totally $hite.

18 all. With the coach testing and trying stuff out. Ran the show in 1st half, made changes, necessary and experimental.

Not fussed with the draw. Next week is what matters.

We need to talk to the International Board and make Rangi Chase English.

I agree would you try cudjoe at fb with widdop and sam at 6 & 7 then you got hall and goulding on the wings

What did Briscoe do wrong?Hall was caught out a few times in 2nd half....id be tempted to paly goulding at centre as Shenton doesnt do it for me.

Not keen on moving a FB to stand off tbh.

We set Sky+ to tape this match for my dad and in Sky Sports listings it says 6am. Hubby got up at 6am to watch it (we have to be up early this morning anyway) only to find 30 mins have gone, 10 left till half time. After looking at Sky Sports website it says Sky Sports 1 5.15am and underneath it (6am).

My Sky + has only taped from 6am

Anyone know why

Some decent signs put just confirms what most people know our first 17 ish is looking strong after that were pushing it.

Widdop looks like a top player, good hands, neat footwork is great at backing up plus the most important thing for me is how he reads the game.
Hall and Briscoe both looked solid defensively and defended kicks well with barely any mistakes which is whats needed.
Atkins and Shenton both did half decent, didnt do much going forward and made the odd mistake that they need to cut out in the tests. Did quite well defensively.
Brown was a passenger for most of the game to be honest but needs a little time and aslong as he helps Sam play to his best attributes then thats all he needs to do.
Sam Tomkins was at his all action best at certain times anything good England did he seemed to have some part in, lets hope he can kick on.
Griffin did well strong running and may nick a bench spot above his teammate Crabtree although close call for me.
Roby did pretty well ran strongly but didnt really mix play up to often and was outperformed at 9 by Robinson.
Morley lets hope hes fit for next week.
Sam Burgess quiet in second half but ran strong and cause planty of problems in the first half.
Ellis was as usual a machine, made bags of yards and ran some great lines probably best player.
O'loughlin showed at times what a great player he is some neat passes and was sorely missed defensively when he was off the field in the second half.

Robinson had some cracking spells but at 9 not 7. Mixed up play brilliantly from the ruck caused all sorts of confusion and trouble.
Westwood ran well and tackled well without doing anything brilliant although was asked to play prop for large periods due to Morley injury.
J Tomkins wasnt his best performance but like westwood he ran hard and put in some nice tackles.
Crabtree had decent spell nice offload and for me i'd have him on the bench for something a little different to the workhourses in Fielden, graham and Morley.

Well judged.

Sorry forgot about briscoe keep wingers has they are

Goulding is not a for me i said last season he was took ball greedy for me he is a winger

Dont know the reasoning but it was in two segments on sky and had it at 5.15 to 6:00 then second section 6:00 onwards, thankfully we had a warning on the Wigan board about this

Sam bang on the ankle but doesn't look to good for morley

Cheers for that. Oh well, will tape the re-play at 9am at try again

I did exactly the same thing.

Not too upset with the performance, jetlag and experimenting in the 2nd half disjointed us. 1st half we looked well organised.

Goulding for Hall for me...Hall was poor in 2nd half and got caught out a few timee.

The pack will hold its own with Graham and Fielden to come in but our backs are pi$$ poor...no matter what half back combo we do...Brown,Robinson,S.Tomkins,Widdop...i dont think Thurston amd Lockyear will be $hitting themselves.