For me McNamara can't be blamed, atleast he has brought a team spirit and a never say die attitude to the team unlike Tony Smith whose team crumbled time and time again. It takes something different to be a good national coach than it does to be a good club coach. McNamara deserves a chance, individual errors cost us today but he can't be faulted for that.

Never heard of Tompkins. What are you going nuts about?

Take off the Hull blinkers. Briscoe has done nothing the last 2 games and his work rate is minimal, he may as well not have been playing. He was awful today and gets no where near kicks either when attacking or defending. He has potential but has a long, long way to go. He has been far worse than Goulding in the last 2 games and based on the last 2 games if you are saying Goulding isnt good enough than Briscoe certainly isnt.

As for Will Sharp and Reece Lyne you surely cant be serious? There are far better wingers than either of these two.

On Sam Tomkins he was very poor today and still has a long way to go. The same can also be said for Joel.

with respect,it doesn't matter who is selected - we must cut out the basic errors,improve discipline etc the aussies can do it so why can't we ?



you're having a laugh aren't you ???



well said

No point in dropping a heap of players...again. What will that achieve? A big fat nothing. Maybe a change of coach but that might not change much either. What England need is a restructuring of the entire game basically. SL needs to sacrifice the number of games in exchange for more intense games. Sl does have some firece, intense and hard hitting games, but too many of them throughout the season are slow, laboured and soft.

The idea of an origin type series is being thrown about but who could England play that would bring that intensity? QLD and NSW hate each other, that's what makes it intense. England are hardly going to hate an international all stars side.

Look at everyones ratings for Goulding... take off your Wigan blinkers.


Unfortunately I don't know every English player coming through every teams academy, I was just throwing my teams up and coming English players into the mix.

Agree with this. No-one expected us to beat NZ or Australia. We know the backs aren't good enough, we know the Aussie officials won't give us a fair go. The attitude and workrate of the team were excellent in both games - and they looked like a cohesive unit in both games. McNamara has to get some credit for that.

Kel Egan was excellent on the radio, BTW. Can't remember hearing such in-depth analysis of the action on British media before.

1. Tomkins
2. TBA
3. Shenton
4. TBA
5. TBA

6. TBA
7. Eastmond

8. Graham
9 Roby
10 TBA
11 Westwood
12 Burgess
13 TBA

pick the form players at the end of the season, dont pick players from the trophy winners/big four just because they look good in a winning side, try and pick club combinations and partnerships that work and ignore the sky hype machine when picking the team

All we can do is look forward to next year because that far away still.

The fullback position as far as I’m concerned is wide open if Sam Tomkins doesn’t produce anything of any note next week. We need someone who doesn’t get caught behind the line or gets shoved over. Paul Wellens has even had better games against Australia than Sam Tomkins. But Sam has time on his hands and he strikes me as a player that will get better over time.

But Wellens international days are over and its probably a contest between Richard Owen, Gareth Widdop and Sam Tomkins for the fulback role. However don’t rule out a return of Lee Smith who may well take over Brent Webb at fullback when webby finally leaves Leeds.

The wing position is pretty strong really. Ryan Hall and Will Sharp are probably the strongest prospects for next year. But the futures certainly looking bright with Tom Briscoe, Zak Hardaker and a few others breathing down their necks.

I’d love to see Danny McGuire and Kyle Eastmond play in the halves. I’d love to see Martin Gleeson back in the centres and the return of Michael Shenton would be a blessing too. The Hooker position will be contested between Sinfield and Roby for the next few years at least.

For the second row I’d have to go with Liam Farrell. I’m pretty shocked that he’s not been picked for this tour. Loose forward is a no brainer with Sean O’ Loughlin. God help us if Westermen ever makes it to the international scene because there’s that many injuries.

Prop forwards we’re not fine. Would love to see the Prop forwards consist of Graham, Peacock, Crabtree and Ryan Bailey.

Gleeson won't be picked for England again, he's burnt his bridges, speaking of Bridges, Chris Bridge will be starting centre in next years four nations.

The future of England Rugby League is the consistent RFL demise of the international scene and there belief that a franchis system cures all ills.

Australia probably have over 80 players to choose from, where England have at best struggle to raise 17 international standard players. Almost 40% of Superleague players are "overseas" players.
For 2011 I thought the RFL model was to restrict teams to 5 players next season yet it looks as though the average is going to be between 6 to 8 overseas players.

We,ve got 2 more years to sort it out but we seem to be saying this every 2 years, every 2 years,every 2 years,every 2 years - talk about Groundhog Day

Give it time- The team is young and we have more coming through

I agree. Although his form totally deserved a place in the team I can understand why he wasnt chosen.



It isnt exactly a big improvement, if any, though is it.

Briscoe made 3 runs the entire game ffs and was at fault for tries. 3 runs for a wingers is shocking.

Goulding did nothing wrong bar 1 knock on when the ball was actually stripped and wasnt at fault for any tries. Goulding won 2 penalties with clever dummy half runs, one of which led to a try, made more than twice as many runs as Briscoe and more than twice as many metres whilst also making more tackles. Indeed Goulding made more metres than any other back. This is despite being injured for most of the second half. goulding was also much better than Briscoe last week. It certainly isnt me that needs to take the blinkers off.

The last bit is the icing on the cake, in our hour of need there's ryan bailey,

all our prayers are answered genius !!

Yes it is, Bridge was possibly THE form player in SL in the month before he got injured.

Mind you, we still don't have anything to trouble the opposition in the backs. The problems start with the junior teams every Sunday up and down the M62 corridor.

Anything is a improvement based on our centres performances in the last 2 games.

Plus, Bridge is far more composed than any of the current centres, he's got great hands, knows how and when to get a pass away to his wingman ( ask Chris Hicks ) plus he can beat a man with his footwork.

So yeah its a big improvement on what we had out there today.

as it at stands at the moment.

CLUELESS!!!!

We can't even get the basics right at international level and as for "thinking"

Unfortunately a team full of superstars doesn’t always work.

But a team full of what you’ve got at Salford doesn’t always work either. What you need is a good mix rather than everyone been the best that’s on offer.

Ryan Bailey has won a lot of trophies with Leeds and we couldn’t of done it without him. He hasn’t been sensational by any means, but he’s been stable.

A good mix is what we need - not a Galacticos Real Madrid type side.

I don't think we're 'clueless' as it stands at the moment.

The side is very young, with a host of both experienced (Peacock/Morley/Bridge/McGuire/Pryce etc..) and decent young talent (Eastmond/Shenton/etc..) missing from the team.

We started well and held on at the end. The Aussies had a purple patch spurred on by the try that shouldn't have been given. We also had two tries that could have been taken, given a bit more luck.

I think we keep on an even course. Hopefully the youngsters will improve and the experienced players will be available for next year. A few more players will come through. Bradford, my team, have a decent crop of young players. Particularly Donaldson and Whitehead could be pushing for the international squad if they have a good season. Other posts have mentioned other young players coming through.

When you think that, just from Bradford, Lynch, Scruton, Langley, Sykes and Goodwin justifiably didn't make the cut, it shows that we are begining to get strength in depth at international level and competition for places. We put out a competitive international team without the above mentioned players.

I think Eastmond and Pryce were missed today. We could have done with another player that can make breaks. It would have taken some heat of Tomkins, who IMO was marked out of the game by the Aussies.

BTW, I always liked Robinson. I remember him tearing St Helens apart for Wigan when he was just coming in to the first team. I never understood why Wigan gave up on him so early.

Most of the England squad today weren’t superstars. However they were the best we had to offer considering the players that have retired from the international set up and the players we have injured.

So in a sense of things they were the superstars of English selection. Steve McNamara choose the best that was at his disposal and it didn’t work. Mind you it hasn’t worked for any coach for many years unless you call the 2007 series win over New Zealand a success.

What we need is a coach that can put together a game plan to beat the best in the world regardless of the players at his disposal. You only have to Look at how Michael Maguire has turned Wigan from the third best side in the country to the very best despite having pretty much the same personnel.

Tim Sheens can work on limit resources - why can’t Steve McNamara?

What we need is someone who can turn the third best side in the world into the first best side in the world with pretty much the same squad. If we can’t get that then its time to give some of the more ‘unglamorous’ players of super league a chance to shine for England. You only have to look at the top three sides and I bet you can pick a squad of ‘average’ players from them that’d qualify for England.

Its these average players that make up the team. Its superstars that are the icing on the cake. Too much icing with very little cake to support it, is England’s problem IMO.



Its been done and it hasn’t worked.

However I agree that its time for Morley to say bye bye to the England set up.

I'm more interested in where the 25-28 year old players are? Why are we having to throw so many young, under prepared kids into the backline?

i personally dont think its all doom and gloom for me most of the backline should be perserved with its been far better than the last 2 games down under against the aussies, yes the young lads made a few errors but with a few more games under the belt at this level we have every chance of doing well in the next world cup.