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

He hasn't played SO for over 3 years and has been head and shoulders the best player in SL during that time. Hardaker has got good footwork but you lose any creativity from FB by putting him there. Sam at fullback is effectively playing as a deep-lying SO anyway and would get his hands on the ball more if the attacking structures were set up correctly and the half backs were capable of playing to them.

Widdop is a genuine SO, and plays there week in week out for one of the top NRL teams. If he was partnered with a genuine no. 7 we'd have a shot. Based on this season's form it would be Widdop at 6 with Brough at 7 (with Matty Smith as back up) though I've mentioned elsewhere it seems McNamara made up his mind that Sinfield and Chase were going to be his half backs 2 years ago.

I'm afraid Widdop, Chase, Roby, McIlorum, Burrow, O'Loughlin et al are going to have to adapt their game to suit the demands of Sinfield and which position and role he wishes to occupy at any given time during the world cup.

That's the deal which was struck 12 months ago when McNamara offered Sinfield the skippering gig alongside unconditional selection in the England team.

Is the world's best player up to the task for England?

We shall have to wait and see.

I don’t know what tickled me more, England losing to Italy or the Aussie squad preferring to go watch Man Utd!

If ever the England team required spurring on, then the fact their next opponents chose to watch a football game instead should be enough.

But maybe I’m too old school, coming from an era when players played for the badge, rather than a bonus wedge of cash at the end of the season, with an all expenses trip to South Africa thrown in.

I don’t blame the coach, it’s the size of the league, the paltry Salary Cap, etc, etc, blah blah, blah.

"Back in t'day, it were a lot betta."

Amazingly the supposedly full time 'super dupe league' team lost against one of the supposedly worse teams in the comp..

Going to be accused of favoritism but its crap when a full time side after a ridiculous pointless training camp thousands of miles away cant produce the goods, An RFL funded trip that everyone is happy to partake in, when we are playing in British weather but then we are content to cut one of the premier comp for our lower league teams and academy teams that will see our best junior talent develop .....joke ,joke ,joke

Quote ="Wellsy13"If someone makes a solid statement, I'd expect them to have something to back it up. I'" We live in an age full of plebs who want scientific data and evidence to back every single little thing up. Oh I'm sure mcnamara had 'something' to justify the jolly. Some minutia sports science data. It increases your v02 max by 0.02% and increases your 1 rep max by 3% or whatever. In the real world, using common sense, spending 2 weeks running drills in summer weather, only to come back to the cold and damp and have just over a week in the actual conditions you will be playing in, is just dumb. I suggest you read this article: www.leaguefreak.com/englands-att ... sful-5982/ I think it 90% spot on.

Quote ="Wellsy13"If someone makes a solid statement, I'd expect them to have something to back it up. I'" We live in an age full of plebs who want scientific data and evidence to back every single little thing up. Oh I'm sure mcnamara had 'something' to justify the jolly. Some minutia sports science data. It increases your v02 max by 0.02% and increases your 1 rep max by 3% or whatever. In the real world, using common sense, spending 2 weeks running drills in summer weather, only to come back to the cold and damp and have just over a week in the actual conditions you will be playing in, is just dumb. I suggest you read this article: www.leaguefreak.com/englands-att ... sful-5982/ I think it 90% spot on.

I do have to agree with the South African thing being a bad idea. I thought so even before they went. If we were heading onto a WC in Australia then ok, but not back home.

Possibly take them to Ireland or France instead for example. That way you get the 'team time together' and you could try to potentially drum up more interest and PR in those countries for the competition whilst based there.

All that rose tinted glasses malarkey makes me laugh. If you read any autobiography from 10+ years ago yes there was pride and passion (as there is today) but there were a hell of a lot more shenanigans off the pitch compared to the professional approach taken today.

There was nothing professional about the attitude of our players yesterday. For your mind not to be focused on the job in hand is unforgivable... And, they'll have no excuses next weekend...