It could well be so.

i'm more confident that this england team will beat australia than i was for the GB team to topple australia in sydney back in 2006

The last time we played Australia in Melbourne (200icon_cool.gif, we had a back three of Wellens, Gardner and Calderwood... this time round we have Tomkins, Briscoe and Goulding

The 2010 back three are so much better than 2008 it is untrue – Wellens is a good player who I have always liked but Tomkins is a much better attacking option in international League while the wingers are much stronger and far better defenders than 2008

The centres are probably weaker, but I don’t remember Senior and Gleeson tearing Australia to pieces over the years – there is no denying Cudjoe is a talented player who could shine in international rugby

It is fashionable to criticise the English backs as ‘worst ever’ but when you look at the facts it is not so obvious

This is an English backline with an average age of 22 so do we expect them to be world beaters today? For me, there is some real talent there (particularly Tomkins, Briscoe and Cudjoe)

Agree with you Dunbar, a Leigh fan on our forum's been going on about 'the worst England team in 15 years'. No it isn't, it's the youngest team in 15 years and 13 years ago, Paul Atcheson was the GB full back.

Indeed and let's not forget Richard Horne on the wing in 2003! Very good player Horne but never a winger in a million years

So you are comfortable with their back row running at our centres than our own back row. You can't hide people at this level. They either tackle or they don't.

let's be honest,this isn't the greatest aussie team to represent their country - probably the best chance of an england victory (or at least prevent an embarassing demolition job) for a few years ? England HAVE to keep their discipline to have any chance,especially with the aussie ref - Good luck lads !

key will be to be within 6 at HT. If we let them get more than two scores in front it'll be all over.

Look at the end of the day it's 13 vs 13 on a RL pitch with subs and anything can happen, even though we go into this game as massive underdogs we can still win.

The Aussies aren't anywhere near as good as they used to be and add that to the injuries they already have it will by no means be a walkover imo.

48-10 to Australia

England can win it if they aim up. Especially with a damp track.

so many errors by england. At this level you get punished when you give away the football!

WTH are these video ref decisions?!

We only have ourselves to blame. Too many errors have gifted the Aussies easy tries and some dodgy decisions by the ref and video ref arent helpin matters.

I agree that our errors were the main problem BUT the officiating was worse than amateur. Blatant cheating from the Aussie officials which has left a very sour taste. They were there for the taking and I don't think we disgraced ourselves in that game at all. C H E A T I N G A U S S I E B A R S T E W A R D O F F I C I A L S !. No need when you have such a great team ! Kiwis to win the 4 Nations for me.

Tony Clubb must get a game after the shocking performances from Atkins and Cudjoe. Both were absolute s-h-i-t-e!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He might do as it will be good to see how he goes.

Got to agree. The Kiwi's look much better than the crims.

Now I know why they wanted Aussiee officials today!!!

After two blatant Aussie no tries actually being given Tasmin Archer then disallows lunt's effort on a ref's call, he then started giving us meaningless penalties in our own half after the 70 min mark, (when they are as useful as a chocolate teapot) to make the pen count look even.

Sheen's comments take the biscuit arguing that Archer was allowing US to lie on!

could anybody post the score please? i'm on holiday at the moment.

Ref's call isn't in the international rules so I don't know where Clark was coming from by using it. If neither Archer nor Clark could be sure of whether the try had been scored by Lunt then they have to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team. They didn't shy away from benefit of the doubt when Tate "scored". As soon as I saw ref's call I could have put my mortgage on what the decision would be.

34 - 14.

I guess you can work out who to from the comments.

Just wondering who McBanana is going to try at Stand-Off next week?

Might as well put one of the props there can't do any worse than last 2 but I'd still have liked to see Brown at centre this week. Might move Tomkins there as he didn't come into the game at fullback.
It just shows what a difference having somebody like Lockyer moving the team around the park and kicking.

Now the Lunt "try"
even he did not look confident, so not that much of a shock that the ref went for the play the ball, and actually it was probably the right decision.
Where was the error? Lunt being far to honest, instead of getting up throwing the ball in the air and making it look like he had scored as is the habit these days with 50/50 calls.
If he had scored, at the after match interview he would have said, "yep it was on the line" he didnt
the so called "knock on" and benefit of the doubt, sorry but have to stick with the vid ref here, did not think it looked like he touched it.

the forward pass was blatent and that was a shocker, but lets be honest you cant blame the ref for England dropping the ball all the time, you cant score if you cant keep hold of it

Okay - so we made far too many mistakes in our own half, but pretty much every time we had the ball in their half we scored, and made the aussie defence look very ordinary.

They didn't have to work for any of their tries, half were given to them by our mistakes and the other half were given to them by the officials.

The frustration of englands handling errors was overshadowed by the absolute ineptituded of the officials.

How can the video ref give benefit of doubt to the aussies, then when there was genuine doubt about the Lunt try decide to give 'refs call' - if he had doubt about it why not giove the try like he did for the aussies ? How can he use two different versions of the same rules in the same game? Absolute joke.

Everyone could see the ball touched lewis' hand - except the video ref, everyone could see the ball was forward in their 2nd half try, even the knock on by goulding giving them field position for their 2nd try was a blatant ball steal with a 2 man tackle - it was an obvious tactic by the aussies in the early hit-ups of the tackle count up to attack the ball - sometimes legally but mostlly when 2 men were involved.

England can find too many ways to lose a game themselves - what they don't need is the officials matching their incompetence............

England can recup 16 odd points and a bucket load of confidence by rectifying the errors seen in the following videos: Cronk knock on + tate baskball try www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEd4fp9 ... r_embedded Sidenote: Watch for the Slater dive in the Lockyer try... Lewis foward pass www.youtube.com/watch?v=74GM03rWixI&NR=1 The french commentators successfully picked up and questioned all three wrong decisions by the refs.

England can recup 16 odd points and a bucket load of confidence by rectifying the errors seen in the following videos: Cronk knock on + tate baskball try www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEd4fp9 ... r_embedded Sidenote: Watch for the Slater dive in the Lockyer try... Lewis foward pass www.youtube.com/watch?v=74GM03rWixI&NR=1 The french commentators successfully picked up and questioned all three wrong decisions by the refs.