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.

I agree that both those teams performed badly. But, they had many players who were far better than thei4 current equivalents. For, example 1979 included Eric Hughes, John Woods, John Holmes, Roger Millward, George Fairbairn, David Topliss, Steve Norton, George Nicholls, Mick Adams, Doug Laughton, etc. Even 1984, a weaker squad in my opinion, included Mick Burke, Keith Mumby, Schofield, Hanley, Tony Myler, etc - players head and shoulders above anyone in our current back line.

Do they still have grass roots rugby in Chorley mon ami?.

Would have loved Roger the Dodger in the 1979 squad but sadly he wasn't out here. Holmes 2 games and Topliss 1 game played at 6 in the Ashes Test series. The 1984 squad disappointed in losing 3-0 following the previous 3-0 loss by the 1979 squad with both squads full of talent as you point out but we only scored 5 tries in 6 Tests in the 2 series. For me particularly disappointing as I had seen GB win here in 1970 and had never seen GB beaten 3-0 before, both here and in England

Bennet to end his tenure on the conclusion of this tour https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/reports- ... ole-24326/

Bennet to end his tenure on the conclusion of this tour https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/reports- ... ole-24326/

Quote ="Wilde 3"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.'" dont give him percival, he would never have played him

Quote ="Wilde 3"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.'" dont give him percival, he would never have played him

Roger was in the tour squad but replaced by Dave Topliss due to injury. Indeed the 1979 tour was blighted by injuries and there were several replacements.

Loved watching Roger Millward when he came out here. In the Ashes winning series in 1970 he missed the first match in Brisbane when we were hammered but played in the next 2 winning games to clinch the series. In 1974 he played in the first 2 and won in the second being selected on the wing. Reserve in the third which we lost.
In 1976 in the English close season he came for a spell at Cronulla playing a dozen or so matches. I was supporting Cronulla at the time and saw all the games he played in.

I was just going to post the same!

I wouldn't know because I don't live in Chorley and I never have.

You should redirect your question to Catalans star Samuel Tomkins, or one of his brothers. They were all raised in Chorley.

For heavens sake the players are not the issue the Coach is and always was.

Bennett is the master of club RL, where he turns out well drilled sides that take few risks and grind out wins. That’s not to say they have no flair because they do but it’s comes off the back of those disciplines mentioned above.

International RL simply doesn’t work that way, there simply isn’t the time. I’m not suggesting all caution is thrown to the winds but a compromise Isco needed and that’s something Bennett simply can’t manage.

We don’t have the players Tonga has to go totally off the cuff but we can do far better than this. At this level the ego that is Bennett is out of his depth he just doesn’t know it.