Given what Gale has offered, Sneyd would have given us far more, Brown has being better than Gale though still not good enough to really dent the okkers. If Taylor doesn't get on the bench in front of Heighington if SOL is out it'd be a travesty, I just think fresher legs in Taylor over one of the other forwards would benefit us. Heighington is pants.
We simply do not have enough across the board to win IMHO, Bateman isn't good enough for what we need, I get that he has plenty of endeavour but in attack he's massively lacking and the Aussies know we'll be shifting it to JM.

Whitehead went well today but his first decent match, Hill better but again has being average throughout, S.Burgess yet again disappointing, Graham does what he does and is pick of the forwards but his 'step' is oh so predictable and doesn't achieve anything, Walmsley was good and Currie not involved enough/not on long enough.

Watts must be thinking what he has to do to get into the England squad because he offers more than at least 2 of the 17 picked today by a mile.

I would love us to do them in their backyard but I just can't see past a 10+ point win to them and I think that's being optimistic.

I think Graham's step has meant he's not BEEN dominated in the collision.

Will be interesting to see what the England team looks like in 12 months time. Regardless of next weeks result I don't think Bennett will be interested in carrying on past this WC so I expect a new coach. I'd guess O'Loughlin may end his international days after this as well given his age.

You're right. I'd line up with a Hull team. They'd win this tournament.

what a petty comment, yet we have 3 under performing warrington players and one who only played about 60 minutes from this season who managed to get picked!

gale hasn't been any good since he picked up his mom award either, heighington...


same players being picked year on year, square pegs round holes, nothing has changed over the years, more than likely we will get beat next week, yet i'll bet 90% off this squad will be the one that is named v the kiwis this time next year

3 players are not a whole team, you need to learn to count sonshine! Not seeing the point of Percival and Lomax in the squad but you know, you've a whole team of stains players in there


Those 3 players were an integral part in the CC winners/3rd placed side, Sneyd is a miles better kicker than Gale, Gale has offered next to nothing, a massive let down, Watts is a better forward than Hill and currently S.Burgess and showed it all season, he's a decent ball handler too in a similar mould to Graham. Taylor hasn't had a fair go but did just fine with his go forward and especially his defence.
Putting forward names of players you think should have a go is all part of discussing matters on a forum, if you don't agree instead of whining like a little bitch put forward reasons why you disagree!

Gale hasn't produced his SL form but you couldn't argue with his selection at the time, Snead over Brown BEFORE the WC you definitely could.

Seems Bennett had his mind made up of his squad since last year and wasn't really going to include new guys from this years showings.

Like I mentioned previously the lineup of the England squad in 12 months time could be interesting with probably a new coach.

Just watched the bbc news channels sport report and they had time to show a clip of Ireland v Argentina playing yawnion but no mention of England having played today live on bbc which shows how much they give a toss about it, mind you I don’t think the RFL give a toss either unless it’s about freebies for the top guys

well we certainly played like a hull team does in the CC final, in control for 70 mins then an almighty scare in the last 2 minutes

just to add a little something else to the debate - i hope we are not tempted to patch up these injured players to get them on the park, this seldom works in big games. i'm sure bennett is too experienced to go down this road

Apart from you being outplayed for most of the opening hour in 2016 and not scoring a point.

Or maybe you meant 2013

That will probably always be the case. Auntie is being shamed into [iseeming[/i to be more evenly representative, but it's all cockeyed. On the Beeb news this morning, they showed footage of Women's footie before the WC RL SF!

As it happens, Grimmo, the writer enjoys watching "yawnion" as well as the evolved (devolved?) code but he hates the protection that is given to RU by the, predominantly, (blindingly) white collar, media.

Back on thread, can't see an English win next week but where there's life there's hope. Will be screaming at the tele (as next weekend will not see the missus woken at an ungodly hour). Come on you Poms.

Chris H (sadly) has defo got to be seeing his last WC, Bateman shouldn't have seen this one (unless he paid for his own tickets).

Gayle's kicks, bar a couple, came under quick, heavy pressure and were therefore rushed, misdirected and ultimately fruitless (as were a couple of early hoists from Brown). Whilst it may signal intent, is it that revolutionary for the halves to drop three or four yards further behind the ruck later in sets? It can always be a bluff.

Sam has shone like a Toc H lamp so far this tournament - though at least he'd applied a bit of Prittstick to his paws this weekend. England need a big shift from him in the final.

Disagreeing with an earlier poster on this thread, thought Widdop was not just the MOM today but da DADDY too.

England need to improve, but they've done so week on week thus far.

Just bloomin' well go out there and 'ave a bloomin' go in what may well be the biggest game of your lives.

Hi mate! In this post you have basically rubbished every selection choice Bennett has made. We aren’t talking about some rubbish player turned rubbish coach like Radford, we are talking about a world class coach. As you obviously know more about coaching than Bennett, if like to know which professional teams you have coached?

Kind regards

King James

England reaching the RLWC Final was the main sport headline on the 10pm news on BBC1.

And a decent report, ahead of the RU internationals.

Wonder if it'll warrant a mention at any point before kick-off next week.

Yeah saw that afterwards as well, just don’t understand the inconsistency with their sports reporting

The DG obviously read Bongser's earlier diatribe. But, then again, it could've been merely a ploy to distract from other England sportsmen (more favoured by The Corporation) that may very well face a damn good aris-kicking at the hands of another team from Upside-Down. At least Scotland RU (that's the code where the Scottish players are Scots - confusing it has to be said) tonked some Aussies.

So you've had a go at someone criticising Bennett with basically "what have you done as a coach" yet you slag off a 2 time CC winning coach calling him rubbish? Do you have a few CC wins to your name to be able to critique him or are you determined lately to make yourself look daft?

We were so fragile during the last ten minutes yesterday that I'm worried we could get blown away if the Aussies get an early lead. I really hope that it's a close game though. It won't be good for RL if the final is massively one-sided. There will hopefully be a decent TV audience in England so I just want the final to be close so that it keeps peoples attention. Realistically I probably wouldn't give us more than a 10-20% chance of winning, but you never know. The Kiwis managed to surprise them in 2008 so maybe we can do the same.

Unless they were playing at 50% in the opening game, they are definitely beatable.

We were the better team in the second half but a penalty given to them (that shouldn’t have) at 10-4 took the game away from us.

We roughed Cronk up and took him out of the game, the only thing is Slater stepped up as the third pivot.

But yes we can beat them... BELIEVE!

So a few questions..
Will our patron be attending the final?
If we win, will our team be invited to the palace to receive their knighthoods like their union counterparts did?
Will there be an open top bus ride through the streets of the capital if we are crowned world champions?

I'm guessing it will be a no on all three accounts.

Can we win it? Yes
Will we win it? Will have to play the game of their lives
Will anyone in this country care if we win. Sadly not many

Amusingly the poster you are defending wanted his club coach sacking (even went to the lengths of starting an online petition) prior to said coach taking us to two Wembley winning finals and two SL play-off semi-finals.

dont give us much of a chance to be honest, Australia by 20+ i feel but we will give a good fist of it early on.

lost hodgson now, ok roby is a good replacement but hodgson helps with our kicking game... which is awful, gale is hit and miss and brown has never been able to kick.

one of the biggest things though that people seem to be forgetting is the amout of travelling this England team have had to do.. they must be exhausted and battered... the aussies will be much fresher.

been across australia twice, east to west and then a trip to auckland and now back to brisbane. recovery will be key but feel we are already burned out, yesterdays tonga game was a bruiser too

The Aussies will have to have a real off day for us to win on Saturday - they do the simple things so well, they build pressure through patience - the greatest team in world sport.

Not sure you can say they are the best team in world sport when they have so little competitive opposition.