I could never be trusted to get up at this ungodly hour so I didn't sleep. I echo your sentiments. Now it's time to sleep.

Balls to sleep, Australia v New Zealand on next.

I've been on the treadmill since 6:30am, time to go back on it!

Only caught the second half so missed Clark's magic. How was it? Will catch the highlights later.

It was funny seeing all the plays that would've been penalised for obstruction over here, the ptb also was much faster.

Let's hope this rfl ref funding was to buy them a TV so they could watch how reffing is done properly.

Great try..highlights bbc 1 at 1300hrs

Will be watching the mighty Hammers then, will have to record it.

Clark looked comfortable out there but not like he was in a Cas shirt, I suppose a few nerves. Was he like that in the first half?

It was alright, caught a few trees standing still and ran around them. They did the same to us about half a dozen times through the game.

Thought England were poor with the ball. Chris Hill was excellent, kicking game was good from the half backs but our shoddy respect for the ball didn't allow us to use that enough. Overall I'm disappointed but I'm hoping it was just the warm-up effect/early sloppiness that we'll get out of our system by next week.


Aus will lose this game if the Kiwis can just get a bit smoother and make the right decisions in the Aus 20. Bentham allowing too much messing about though.

Have always been impressed by the Samoan spirit, especially when they get on a role (HJ..world cup V NZ) BUT I have to say, the best performance of the England game had to go the referee. Actually saw very little to complain about and the game just flowed. Does SLE have a salary cap coz they should sign him up ?

They certainly don't seem interested in obstruction. I also thought there was an awful lot of head high play that seem to be ignored, the one on Graham especially stood out, I did think Graham was going to mete out some summary justice but he obviously thought better of it.
Chris Hill put in a big stint and looks right at home, defensive blip apart!

I was worried about the number of errors we made...until I watched the second test. The Aussies made far more errors, without the low sun and blistering heat. It was hilarious listening to the Channel 9 team attempt to blame it on the football.

Lots of positives from that game to get excited about, we have our best chance of winning over there in a long time. With O'loughlin back, another weeks training and everyone fully acclimatised England can make history next weekend. What I'd give to be over there!

I think you must have watched a different England game if you're optimistic about our chances vs Aus. They'll not lose their 1 and 6 during the game again - sadly, as I'd take an England win under virtually any circumstances.

England's defence was really awful in that game. Linespeed was non-existent (how often were they back-pedalling on virtually every tackle because they allowed a quick PTB?), schoolboy on-line defence and Tomkins really is an accident waiting to happen under high kicks.

As for Wire players, Hill looks very comfortable at that level, as he did last year. Clarke has a touch of class as well, although I'd really prefer him to play for 80 mins so we didn't need a second hooker in the 17.

A ptb in Aus is 2-2.5 sec faster than what is allowed by Wigan in the UK.

There's a good chance DCE will be out and we will have O'loughlin back. I haven't seen the stats yet, but it felt the Aussies made far more errors than us (without the sun/heat) and the Kiwi forwards completely steamrolled them. Cut the errors, smarten up around the ruck and we will win. If we win we make history, 100 years on from the Rorke's Drift Test. For mine, there is no bigger incentive in our sport.

England did make a lot of errors. However, the one postitive is that for the first time in years in an opening game of a tournament we looked like we had a genuine attacking structure and ideas to break open a defence. Widdop's pass to Farrel for his try ( on the back of quick cross-field passing movement ) was a good example. To beat Australia you need to spend at least 50% of the game on attack. NZ on Saturday probably had 70% of the game on attack. Don't give them lots of minutes to conjure up some of their magic.