Utilising your opinion to overide fact is the action of an narcissist.

Thought Australia were the better team in the first ten minutes of the game and the last forty. So overall they deserved to win.

Our kicking game and two of our second rowers were poor. The best back rower in SL last season was nowhere to be seen (Whitehead) when JTomkins and Ferres were completely amonymous throughout the season and have not justified being in the team. and in this game they were awful! Charnley did nothing and neither did Hodgson. You cannot have four players contributing so little to a game against Australia. That's not good enough.

However, that was a try in the final minute. BBC Sport showed a super zoom of it and it was 100% nailed on a try! Nobody had ever heard of the video ref, not even Millward an Aussie! Where did they pluck him from?some Melbourne back street pub and say "here you go pal, you're the video ref for the Australia v England game!"...disgraceful decision!

But I don't think we even deserved to win. Poor game management, no leadership, no direction, poor tactics, poor kicking game...Australia's worst team for decades were still better than our best team for decades.

Joel Tomkins inclusion in this side baffled me but didn't surprise me, when you have a 1st team coach 11 and a half thousand miles away running the team!!!

JT was the England replacement for Hock or Westwood, take your pick.
That is a MASSIVE drop in back rower talent, I would have even been satisfied with Ablett.
There was even Cooper in that squad he could have selected before him, and from McNamara's own back garden, raving it up!!!

Okay I know there are excuses for not selecting two of them but please! Charnley showed more skill before kick off with his finger up his nose!
JT perhaps 10 SL games? No preseason conditioning, a flop in Union not getting game time.

Would the Aussies put up with such an farce of a coaching set up as ours with McNanara?
And I hope the donuts on here who backed him on another thread and told me to shut it revise their thoughts!

Basically, we did a Chelsea. Get a lead, then shut up shop. Chelsea, more often than not, manage to see the game out.

That game was there for the taking, and due to non-existant attacking threat for 20 odd minutes, and then panic station for the last 10, we bottled it....against the weakest Aussie side I can ever remember.

MacNamara is now becoming a master in heroic failure, with no plan B

The ref was, quite frankly, out of his depth. EVERY time we had a kick, either Widdop or Smith was CLATTERED by the on running tackler(s), along side with two second late "flops" which happened umpteen times during the game.

Clark needs to realise that he has teammates, and needs to offload at the correct time. 2 or 3 times he bombed clear cut chances, when he could have taken the easier option of a pass.

Joel Tomkins is currently nowhere near international class, as is Josh Hodgson.

Hall superb. This fellow is a beast.
Hill superb.
Graham kept getting up after bad knocks.

I can see another heroic defeat next week. Shame, as the players deserve a better coach.

This

If ferris and JT is the best we can muster for Hock and Westwood then McNamara in charge down yonder clearly exhibits how well the appointment is working!!!

McNamara is too soft. Bad decisions go against his team and he just takes it. "oh, i'm not sure if it was a try or not".

If he wants to see how to go on a proper rant, he needs to check out Matt Parrish's recent interview regarding match officials.

Of course, the difference is Parrish doesn't have a job in the NRL, McNamara does and he's probably s**tting it because if he stirs anything up, he thinks he could lose his job.

Inglis grounded the ball before Hall did, so it should have been a drop out.



We had such a nothing second half, we woke up in the 78th minute and actually nearly scored. Very disappointing.

With respect to England's response to the VR decision Australian captian Cameron Smith said: "I think they were trying to bluff the referee, a lot of teams do that".

Well, I suppose he would know better than most!

Interesting comment from Wilkins in the highlight show to the effect that England look at their most dangerous when Hill and Clarke are on the pitch together.... the future is bright, the future is PnB!

Elliot Whitehead must have watched that game today and thought "what the is going on?!" I said on the last page, Whitehead was the best back rower in SL last season and he was nowhere to be seen.

Yet JTomkins, the turncoat Union , gets straight in the team after less than a dozen average games back in SL and he contributed absolutely nothing in two games in this Four Nations. Then you have Ferres, who hasn't impressed me in any game I've seen him play in for over a year gets in the team as a sub for these two games and contributes absolutely nothing as well.

Could be worse, the toffs are talking about where Sam Burgess will feature in their England squad before he has even played a minute of the sport. Embarrassing.

Whitehead can't defend

Ferris was on fire, last year. Sadly, that was last year. That's a bench spot taken up.
Tomkins J just nowhere near what's required
Westerman living on previous years' reputations
You never know if SO'L is going to be fit or not
Farrell is too "in and out" in his performances

So that's the scrum's back 3 covered, and it's not great. It's certainly not Test level.

This MUST give the likes of Currie and Laithwaite the fillip they need to reach Test level (even though they aren't there, atm). They can't do any worse than what's was out there, this morning.

cant wait to see Clarke playing for us next season.

Don't know about Clarke, but I can't wait to see Clark!

Totally agree....best signing we've made for many seasons!

well lefty you got In there early, first to call Clark. He will make mistakes(only 21) but he was one of the only player who looked like he could cause the Ausies problems.

incorrect

I didn't call Clark

I merely pointed out what was glaringly obvious. He bombed chances that could have EASILY been tries. At International level, these are the fine lines between winning and losing, and today, his decisions played a big part in us not winning the game. His coach will know that. His under 11's coach would have known that.

Clark's a player I can't wait to see in P&B, however, MoS or not, he needs to realise his mistakes and learn from them.

Nobody else suspicious about Clark playing well in these games....? Looks like he's trying to angle for an NRL move at the first opportunity and this is his shop window.

no

what I did like about Clark's run - where he clearly should have passed - was he picked out the winger who had his back to the defence and ran at him and was creating a three on one. That winger was never ever going to tackle anyone...unfortunately for Clark he ran on the outside of Greg Inglis and not much gets passed him...

fortunately in Superleague he wont play against the calibre of Inglis....ever....

on the game...... England should have butchered that Aussie team......in they end we were clearly robbed...its a shame

Having watched the "try" several times, I would have been gutted if that had been awarded against Wire. However, the refs explanation for not awarding a try was a load of old pony.

Try minimum requirement 3 things.
Controlling pressure
Finger tip contact
Blade of grass grounding

I think all 3 of the boxes were ticked by Hall

What it doesn't say is
Celebratory attitude
That is what the Aussies are using as a justification

I'd have more chance having a pooh in the Queen's handbag, than that "try" being allowed by the video ref.

An Aussie team being knocked out of the comp (assuming the conversion would be successful) with a debatable try, before all their group games being completed. NOT A CHANCE. He was NEVER giving that try

that celebratory thing was a joke. I've seen players this year in the NRL celebrate "tries" that have been both short of the line and knocked on and all done with a foot in touch. If Refs are swayed by the quality of celebration we are in a pretty poor place....