Quote ="roughyedspud"i was in townsville and while it was'nt the greatest performance we were never in danger of losing it... like i said on the VT...we could beat NZ and PNG but get flogged by OZ in the 4 nations and idiots like you will still say NZ are better than us and PNG were unlucky'" Not sure about that. [i"At the 2008 World Cup, scratchy England almost suffered defeat against unfancied Papua New Guinea in their opening game while France troubled them further in the first fixture of last year's Four Nations at Doncaster. "We've entered competitions in the last two years and not really performed in our first game," said McNamara. "We were probably a little fortunate to end up on the right side of the scoreboard and want to iron out those issues"[/i The great one was not as confident as you. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/rugby-le ... 6567590.jp

Quote ="roughyedspud"i was in townsville and while it was'nt the greatest performance we were never in danger of losing it... like i said on the VT...we could beat NZ and PNG but get flogged by OZ in the 4 nations and idiots like you will still say NZ are better than us and PNG were unlucky'" Not sure about that. [i"At the 2008 World Cup, scratchy England almost suffered defeat against unfancied Papua New Guinea in their opening game while France troubled them further in the first fixture of last year's Four Nations at Doncaster. "We've entered competitions in the last two years and not really performed in our first game," said McNamara. "We were probably a little fortunate to end up on the right side of the scoreboard and want to iron out those issues"[/i The great one was not as confident as you. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/rugby-le ... 6567590.jp

2nd half v PNG scored 4 tries conceded 1

2nd half v france scored 5 tries conceded 0


yeah i can see how we nearly lost both...




like i said we where never really in danger of losing either game

Mate I am only quoting the Current Coach who was the assistant Coach at that game, he must be wrong and you are right, seems probable.

It should have been a walk in the park but instead....

[iEngland were headed towards an embarrassing first up defeat to the Kumuls when they trailed 16-12 at half time but rallied with four tries to one in the final 40 minutes to secure the victory.

World Cup contenders England were expected to make easy work of the underdog Kumuls, but they were made to fight all the way before securing the win.

Smith scored in the 29th minute and again just 11 minutes after half time as England drew level at 16-all.[/i

Won by 10 points against mainly amateurs and B graders.

You must have left in the last 20 minutes as the Ref got the call to get with the script and make sure that the Kumuls did not come home with a wet Sail.
The Ref did his best to get the right result when it became obvious England could not do it on their own.

yep...i'm right..



hth




anyway.... never trust a man that says.." at this moment in time"...every other friggin sentence lol

...or "there" 3 times per sentence!

PNG have drafted in Hull KRs Billy Mallinson to whip the PNG players into shape, in his interview in the local paper he says the language barrier was a bit of a problem, and he couldnt believe that some of the players hadnt lifted weights before either, amazing when you think how big the PNG lads are.
I reckon they could give us a shock tbh, but there downfall could be Sir Stanley Genes lack of coaching experience though.

I don't share the feelings of negativity about Steve Mc, OK he's unproven but isn't every new National coach when they first get the job.

His coaching record at the Bulls is average but come on he was offered the $hitty end of the stick a real poisoned chalice of an opportunity and I doubt the combined forces of Noble/Elliott and Smith would have fared any better than McNamara.

Whoever said that you had to be a proven domestic coach to cut it at international level anyway, Mal Reilly wasn’t, neither was Ellery Hanley and on the other side of the argument you could look at Fabio Capello's abject failure at International level after being almost peerless domestically. You could also look at the failures of David Waite and Tony Smith who both had very good coaching successes before becoming our National coach.

Maybe Steve McNamara will find his niche as an international coach, he's certainly spent much of his career as a player and coach mixing with and learning from some very good coaches.

Maybe he'll be a nightmare and England will get flogged but I like the things that S.McN has said and done so far with the exception of Gleeson’s exclusion but even that shows strength of conviction which might auger well.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until I see differently

widdop at fullback, sam t and brown in the halves, griffin starts at prop fielden and graham not playing.

I'm assuming this one's not on sky?

No ... it's on Sky Sports 1 at 5.30am

Excellent.

Can england win though?

You would have thought so... but those Maori are big boys... and they dont like the english an awful lot...

They love the English, its the Convicts they despise.

But thats the same thing?


The convicts were English?

Well Irish, Welsh and Scottish too I suppose.....

G Widdop (Melbourne); T Briscoe (Hull), M Shenton (Castleford), R Atkins (Warrington), R Hall (Leeds); K Brown (Huddersfield), S Tomkins (Wigan); A Morley (Warrington, capt), J Roby (St Helens), D Griffin (Huddersfield), G Ellis (Wests Tigers), S Burgess (South Sydney), S O'Loughlin (Wigan).

Subs: L Robinson (Huddersfield), E Crabtree (Huddersfield), J Tomkins (Wigan), B Westwood (Warrington), B Harrison (Warrington), L Cudjoe (Huddersfield).

It should go well, but I worry we lack a General.

A General what?


Idea?


Concept of winning?


all round ability?

Ha........ha.......ha.......

is there ANY danger whatsoever of England losing this game?

i'd like to see harrison in 2nd row and burgess pushed up to prop. harrisons defence is awesome i think having two real grafters in the secon row with o lochlin will be a real benefit as we are always busted open on the fringes and they can help out the centres in defence. I fear for us where ryan hall is concerned i dont rate im he's very dodgy under the high ball and has very little pace for a winger at international level in my opinion. I dont know enough about the nz maouri to say if the game will be tough or not but judging by our last trip to the land of the sweaty gypsys!

Dont give up the day job reggie.

If you have one.

Where is this 'land of the sweaty Gypsies' you speak of anyway?

id liked to have seen Sam Tompkins at F/B rather than S/H, he has more room to play at F/B, at first reciever his running game will be stifled, my main concern with this squad is our kicking game, or our lack of it. whose going to do our kicking?

what would you know about a day job pie eater? you've done nothing since your work experiance in Mc Donalds.

[url=http://twitter.com/DaveWoodsSportDave Woods in the thick of it on twizzler.[/url

Great result by the Maori.

Such a strong, proud tradition of competing with international sides.

Good hit out for England.