That’s what I was thinking!

Let’s hope so!

Bloody stupid isn’t it? Samoa are through and they have been dreadful!

It should have been:
Top 2 in Groups A+B go through automatically
Top team in Groups C+D go through automatically
Best two next places teams go through

Which would have seen 1/4 Finals of:
Australia v Italy
Tonga v Ireland
PNG v England
Fiji v New Zealand

When the top team wins 3

I've thought that method would work better for the last two world cups, as you've displayed would give a better set of and more deserved quarters

I think the long term goal should be 4 leagues of 4 with the top two going through

With the steady improvements to Fiji and big improvements from tonga and PNG I'd like to think The cook islands can field an improved competitive side, we need another nation to come through to fill the final spot

4 leagues of 4 with the top going through has to be the goal

We don't need the Cook Islands in the World Cup. The country has a population of 19,000 (which makes it smaller than Leigh) and no domestic competition.

We should be thinking of adding Serbia, which has a population of nearly 9 million, a domestic competition, and a few heritage players in Australia. Next perhaps another European country which has a domestic competition, or Canada, to fill the 16th spot.

This is not true. Except for the wingers, PNG has superior outside backs and halves to England, and even the PNG wingers are very good and will be competitive.
It is only in the forwards where England is superior to PNG (except for hooker), and England will depend on its forwards making many yards and defending well in order to win.

Get the ball out to our wingers as the size of them will trouble anyone.
Start with Hodgeson as Hooker and then bring Roby on after about 30 minutes as his running from dummy half will cause them nightmares.

Really? I know you like to talk Engand down and every other side up. Also even though a few players haven't hit their straps, you can't surely dismiss a Daly M winning five-eight Widdop, who's played well for England & this seasons SL Man of Steel Luke Gale, for PNG's Halfs. IMO the only PNG back I'd have in the England team is Nene Macdonald. Also are you saying Watkins for example wouldn't be in the PNG starting 13, or do think Ottio is a better player.

There's also there's more facets to the game than individual players, there's experience both individually and collectively from playing in big International Comps but also at a high level in the NRL and SL. There's the Coaching structures, we're we've got one of the best ever in that regard, whatever you may think of him, plus other tanglible and intangible facets.

Of course it's true you silly person.

And?, your point is

I don't talk England down. I think that England has a strong team. But so does PNG. And I think that England can win, but not easily because of the PNG back line firepower.

I don't know which position Gareth Widdop will play. But if it is full back then he is good but not better than speedster David Mead. I would put those two as roughly equal.

As far as half backs go Luke Gale has been outperformed by the PNG halves -- all three of them.

Nene Macdonald is the best centre of any in either team. Kato Ottio is better than Bateman and probably Percival, though we will see for sure next Sunday..

LOL. Canada would be starting well behind USA in establishing a national team. USA managed to score 12 points whilst leaking 168 in this competition. As to whether the Cook Islands are a valid addition, that's also doubtful. In terms of Serbia, they apparently have around 1000 registered players, but most of those are juniors, so probably a few years before they're in a position to take a place on the world stage. It does seem that they making progress though.

Back to the original post, England will need to be at their best (defensively) to beat Tonga.

I think people are getting a bit overexcited by Tonga. NZ were vastly superior for the first 40 minutes against them, and threw the game away by basically not playing for most of the second half. Momentum is huge in RL, and really hard to get back once a team starts coasting. England had the same problem vs France. Put it this way, I expect NZ would beat Tonga 9 times out of 10 and Australia wouldn't be fazed by the idea of playing them at all.

Tonga will start like a house on fire through Fifita and Taumalolo. The key will be to hold them for the first 20 minutes - solid defence and playing for position. Let those guys make some damaging runs near their own line.

PNG have played no one and against Ireland they only just won. They'll put up a physical opposition for the first half but England should be able to get through them easily.

As for Tonga, they had virtually all of the possession for most of the first half against New Zealand and ended up 16-2 down at half-time. New Zealand were so much better with ball in hand. The second half was just one of those bad halves. You could see the confidence drain from New Zealand and rise in Tonga. Does that mean Tonga played well? Not really. New Zealand just played very badly in a game they thought they'd wrapped up and perhaps started to feel the effect of little possession for the first thirty minutes.

NZ were Pants against Tonga ! They got what they deserved , but at the same time opened Tonga up very easily !

PNG may well score some points against England but England will be too structurally balanced for them. I can see us grinding out a comfortable win from no frills Super league type rugby !

I can see us ripping through them around the ruck

Yes they can.

I wish the PNG game was in Port Moresby, taht would have tested our mettle.

What we need is to build in confidence and towards playing 80 minutes. Playing in PNG would just have drained us physically and given no indication as to how we'd fare against Tonga and beyond. Nobody can play for 80 minutes at full intensity in PNG, including PNG.

That's very true.
If the PNG v England game had been played in PNG the winners of the game would have been easy pickings for their opponents in the semi's as the winners would still be drained

Going off today’s Tonga display I’d say, absolutely yes!

But we need to improve massively

We certainly do

It's an England v Australia final like I said last week we'll beat PNG by 30 and Tonga by 20

Would you say the same about Darwin? It's not that far south of Port Moresby, is it?

If England beat PNG then they will lose to Tonga. I called an Aussie v Tonga final at the start and I stand by it........Tonga v England at Mt Smart will see a packed house and 99% of them will be Tongan