in league express martyn salder questions wether browny should be in for the NZ match because of his brittle defence, what he fails to mention in the piece is that kev did the most tackles in the backs and burgess missed as many tackles as brown i cant see the problem with brown performance myself , didnt make any errors on attack from what i saw, didnt create a try but neither did tomkins, for me all 4 giants who played on saturday should play this week again.

what was the player ratings for joel tomkins

There were unforced errors but there were also some bits of quality. I said that at the time.

I didn't see anything from Brown BUT as has been said he was being asked to play a role he's not used to, and that's why im not sure him and Tomkins can work as a partnership. It should be Brown OR Tomkins at 6 and then a true 7 to make it work.

Again, I didn't see anything from Griffin that made me think he deserves a place ahead of Fielden. He did ok, but nothing special whereas I think Crabtree put in a good performance.

Joel Tomkins was non-existant, but so were the rest of the forwards the 2nd half.

A bit too much negativity in my view, rightly or wrongly the coach appears to have decided that we are unlikely to win this 4 nations so time to move to a new generation of players, keeping enough experience to keep the younger ones calm. That experience is now guys like Graham, Roby and O'Loughlan

I thought the entire England team did well in the first half,
the hooker half back combo of Tomkins/Brown with Robbo spelling Roby was good. I think Brown did ok with the non-flashy stuff freeing up Tomkins to give him more licence. Tomkins try was the best example of that link working, good offload, cracking break but also a cracking support line taken to finish off the break.

When ST went off a combo that is not the Giants best was left on for England, together with a tiring pack, being a man down. That emphasised lack of depth, stick Eastmond into the mix and that wouldn't happen, but he isn't fit.

I also thought Griffin did very well first stint and ok second stint. As for J Tomkins, he seemed to be trying to hard, some good bits and some not so good. I think he knew he needed to outplay Westwood to get a test place. JT is certainly one who should be around the squad for many years to come.

Having mentioned Ben Westwood, I thought both he and O'loughlin had a cracking games, Westwood did very long minutes and a spell at prop, the bloke has so much heart you would just want him by your side in a battle.

League Weekly is the ultimate flat cappers paper, its not worth using as bog roll IMO.

I bet they still wish it was winter rugby, they did last time I picked on up.

Not sure who did the match ratings in League weekly as they did not even bother to put their name to the article. On the next page there is a match analysis from Danny Lockwood which makes interesting reading and he is very complimentary of the Giants players with Hall and Shenton been the two players he singles out as been poor.
The comments in the ratings totally contradict the Danny Lockwood article.

Kevin Brown was very poor. The attack completly died when he recieved the ball. I hope the lad does better vs New Zealand on Saturday.

Welcome to our world. It's got nothing to do with Huddersfield. This is the kind of thing Saints and Leeds had to put up with - especially Saints (think Wello) - after the world cup. Remember? Whichever club contributes the highest number of players to the England team will be the club who is likely to feel the criticism most simply because the higher the number of players from your club the greater the chance is that one or two won't perform to expectation. You have the highest number of players in the England team; chances are, one or two of your guys weren't going to come up to scratch in the opinion of fans/pundits. It's just probabilities and you'll just have to deal with it as best you can.

I'm glad it's your turn, though! I would have been happy this year if no Saints players had been picked for England. Just as I thought we were sneaking off out the back door with only two contributors, James Graham gets picked as captain. Bugger. (Though of course I wish him well)

The same thought crossed my mind when I heard.

Personally, I think the irony is Macnamara has picked the best team that could be picked, and picked a team that could actually do the job.

If only it had a good coach behind them. The team, as a whole is up to it, and is actually a well balanced team. Whether Macnamara's strategising can do the job is another matter. Both have to work for the team to win at this level...

Hang on, didn't Crabtree get an 8 and Robinson a 7? And doesn't the writer say Robinson should start next week. Hardly anti-Giants bias! Shenton also got a 5, so does that mean the writer hates Saints too?

Did you read the thread, or just jump in with a post based on what you think has been said?

I've read the thread. What's your point? Where else does it say that you're all just paranoid because two of your players happened to be rubbish in one game?

There are two seperate reviews, one with the player scores, one in the body of the review.

And maybe because two of the players werent rubbish, or no more rubbish than anyone else in the team...

I know there were two separate reviews, two separate people having two separate opinions.

And I'm sorry, I know you stick up for your own, but Brown and Griffin are not international class. If Tomkins is fit, Robinson must play 7 with Lunt coming onto the bench. Fielden has to replace Griffin.

Fielden will replace Morley.

Nooo, Fielden will replace Griffin. But then Griffin will replace Moz

More club based piffle. Superfluous, puerile gibberish and a waste of bandwidth.

Brown starting at standoff,

Robbo & Griff coming off the bench

No place for Crabtree, Lunt, Cudjoe, but i do think the squad will be rotated accordingly over the 4 nations.

so much for Bown & Giff not being good enough, Brown has been the stand out performer in a good Giants team this year, Griff is always honest just goes out and carries the ball foward, Fielden and Graham are the starting front rowers,

Just because Steve McNamara picks someone, doesn't mean they're good enough. Two words: Paul Sykes.

England heading for disaster on Saturday. Can't believe he picked Griffin over Crabtree.

You are a fool.

Ooh... your words cut deep. No need to be nasty!

Carnt believe that any one takes any notice of two no marks writing in there own papers about player performances,guys these two are journos that would not know a good player if one fell out of a cupboard and hit them on the head, FFS why do you think H.Hanley would never talk to the press

why would he want to talk to someone who dint know jack about the game.

Boyd, in this occaision you are spot on (as was El Han for not speaking to these fools)