sounds like a train wreck

Tomkins would get his hands on the ball if he played stand off. He'll never make a FB because he can't catch when the pressure's on. Hardaker should be FB and Tomkins SO - especially as we have no other remotely credible SO.

No Myler, No Brough. Picking a player with virtually no experience ahead of Crabtree.

Macbanna has always been a joke coach and know he has the opportunity to showcase himself on the world stage.

Very embarrassing for all concerned. Worst ever defeat for England RL?

Still, that 'Italian' side was a pretty strong line up dominated by NRL and international veterans. They were never going to be any mugs and if I'd known about the 50-odd point start the bookies gave them I'd have had that bet.

While it's a shock, I'm not reading too much into a mix & match, swap & change team in the pouring rain in front of a small and subdued crowd with the Aussies watching on. Sounds like the only ones up for it were the Italians and when one side is fired up while the other is having a stroll things will never be easy.

That said, Australia will be even more confident than usual. We're in for a tough ride next week.



Just remembered, I'm part Italian.

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Yes - worst ever defeat.

All this Italy being stuffed with class is plain silly. They are ranked 13 for a reason. If the players were as good as people are deluding themselves over they'd be playing for Australia.

Fact is it is utterly, utterly embarrassing for English Rugby League. We all know the coach is wholly inadequate but that's no excuse. The players must take a long hard look at themselves as they have gone down as the WORST performers EVER (that's in over a century) to represent their country in this sport. Sorry lads but that's how s**t you are. The record book shows it. There's no hiding place now. You need to stand up - like so many of our forefathers have had to do in more serious theatres. Nothing less than winning the tournament will do now.

Is it this squad of players who have been ranked 13th or is it a squad of players that ply ther trade in Italy?

I thought that I could make a measured response, but I cannot. That was shocking.
After the first try I thought "we'll start playing any minute now." After the second "A chance to show some character." By the end of the game I just wanted to take the vuvuzelas off the Crosby family (Yes Dom your drunken relatives) sat behind me and stick them up the s of the team.

Are we all overreacting to this result? We lost narrowly to Italy who are 2001-1 with the bookies to win the World Cup, where's the shame in that?

The result is a monumental hammerblow to england.

Oh ek come back william eve all is forgiven

They'll reach the semi finals.

That's the way the draw has been tilted in their favour.

Will most likely play one of PNG, France and Samoa in the QF and those last two teams are very ordinary.

At least they avoid Tonga who could cause England a problem or two... and Italy of course

Can we please come up with something a bit more original than McBanana? It's getting quite boring.

And whilst we're on the subject of the coach...

I'm no particular fan of McNamara but let's be honest, the England / GB job is where coaches go to die. It's a thankless task in which the only measure of success is whether we manage to beat a nation that is lightyears ahead of us both on and off the pitch.

Call for the coaches head by all means, but I can't imagine a massive postbag of CVs turning up at Red Hall to replace him.

Crapnamara?

The idea of a warm up is you kick the living s*** out of some poor small team, When I warm up in the gym I don't expect to wake up in the hospital. Failure in a warm up is a new low and goes beyond player selection

However....

Just watching Les Mis' with the missus and it occurred to me how embarrassing this must be for the French. They have been trying to beat us for years and never got close.

Very true!

Well it would be unacceptable to not reach the semi final.

Yep france are t and samoa have been thumped by england knights so i'll assume we'll be playing PNG in the QF.

My opinion is,England are a decent team and we'll get to the final.If we don't i wont be to disapointed cos the chances are it'll be N/Z vs Aus and if thats the case, i'll look forward to it with relish,because the finest game of RL iv'e ever seen has involved these two teams.

Lol it was a training run out played at 50% intensity as training run outs should be. Stop being so hysterical!

They will need to beat Fiji to make the semis, Fiji are much stronger than Italy so i'm not sure England will even make the last 4.

Having lived and worked over in Italy to try and help with the development of rugby league last year, I'm thrilled at the result. Shame it's at England's expense.

I just hope following this World Cup that rugby league carries on growing in Italy. I spoke to Fabrizio Ciaurro after the game, having played alongside and against him over in Italy, and he's the only out-and-out Italian in the squad. It'd be nice to see a lot more born-and-bred players coming through.

Why wasn't England team presence in SA used to help the sport there? No trial games against the SA national RL team? Fickle.

So you couldn't see the sarcasm oozing in my comment

If someone makes a solid statement, I'd expect them to have something to back it up.

It's completely unfair to criticise someone when you're using facts you can't back up. You were criticising he aebgland set up going to SA because you said it would be better to train in the rain. I'd expect something to back that up otherwise it's just an unreasonable comment that shows you just can't be happy.


Why don't we? You don't travel to high altitudes just to perform at high altitudes.

I wan't 100% sure!

I am annoyed about this because it just leads to hyperbole and ruins all the good work done in the build up to the opener, giving the likes of Eve and League Geek plenty of ammunition.

I was there and lets be honest the game was played like the warm up game it was. Players were on and off, swapping positions etc. They weren't going hard into the tackles, I only recall one 'big hit' which came from James Graham. Next week will be a completely different story. Still there is a hell of a lot of work to be done and certain players need to look at themselves.

Nothing to do with the coach for me, a group of players like that should be able to get the job done without a coach. Tim Sheens is a poor coach, but he has a strong and capable group of players. It is all about attitude and belief. Both were sadly lacking yesterday.

Yeah, Tim Sheens is a really poor coach