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.

Because they are so proficient at what they do - the skill levels are so high - their isn't a team in world sport that consistently delivers high quality performances as often as they do.

I think we're being a bit tough on Gale, the guy is a great 7.......in the Cas side, and that's where he's losing his edge, I can see the frustration in his face that he's not able to pull the strings and be more influential.
Make no mistake, nobody wants to win more than Gale but its a team game and generally the England side does not offer him the same opportunities Cas do.
Its too easy to look at what he did for Cas and expect that to be transposed in to a completely different team, he doesn't have the same support, protection, understanding or influence that he has at Cas

I don't think there's much mileage and changing things at this stage, he still has the potential to make some big plays and is playing well enough despite not being able to click 100% with the squad.

He is also playing against a different quality of player - he doesn't have the time and space afforded him in SL.

His kicking is for the most part has been poor to abysmal.

His tackling technique is laughable for a professional player - I lost count of the number of times he was pushed off or failed to execute a tackle - embarassing.

Well, like I said....



you don't, for reasons I can't be bothered to challenge....fair enough

I don’t think it’s right to say he’s not had the support he has at Cas. In three games v PNG, France and Lebanon, our pack was completely dominant and he had all the time, space and opportunity any halfback could have wanted. He just didn’t do much with it.

He’s not a bad player. I’d happily have him at Saints. But the fact that he has a almost certainly the best English scrum half tells us much about the lack of our talent in that position.

Like others have said, our kicking game needs to improve 100%.

Our defence is actually capable of winning the WC. In the first game against OZ, we dropped so much ball yet OZ couldn't break through. OK we nearly imploded in the last 10 mins against Tonga. But the 70mins before that, we were fantastic. If we can improve and get an 80mins performance, you never know.

Firsr WC final in 22 years. IM going to dare to dream. If they wallop us, they wallop us. Lets enjoy the build up.

I can't see how that judgment can be made when they have no real opposition. Brazil and Germany have done very well in the football World Cup over the last 6 decades in the most competitive sport in the world. Why are they not so good?
Your view is based from the perspective of a weak RL nation making them seem great, If UK football clubs were all RL clubs and as well financed as they are, do you seriously think Australian's RL team would get within 60 points of England very often? What if RL was the national sport of 100 other nations, would Australia really be seen as do good?

For us to have any chance we need to play at 100% for 80 minutes and just hope Australia have a off day

I had a dream that we won 12-6 and then I work up and new it was just a dream and then I started crying

We need Steve Ganson to come out of retirement for us to win this one I'm afraid

Im starting to think Gale just cant handle a pressure game, unfortunately the guy who schooled him in the GF is sat at home, as is the Lance Todd winner. Bennet is just making the same mistake as previous coaches who picked Pryce over the Leeds halves because e looked great against rubbish teams.

Anyone think the godfather of rugby league coaching, Wayne Bennet, has something up his sleeve?

Just hope that he gives England the belief in themselves that they can win, just like he did for NZ in 2008.

Well he’s got us to the first World Cup final since 1995.

If he does have an ace (rather than just an arm) up his sleeve then hope he keeps it up there rather than PM anybody "in confidence." The guy has proved that he can work magic, but it wouldn't be in our interests for the contents of this wizard's sleeve to be leaked. Then we'd have to accept coming in sloppy second! Loose lips sink ships!! Sssshh!!

got to give him that! suppose its objective achieved really.

another semi final loss would have shown we havent progressed

England 7/1 to win the world cup...