Schofield leading the 'Wane Out' brigade before a ball has even been kicked. He's really never forgiven us for completely overshadowing his entire career. https://everythingrugbyleague.com/schof ... e-alright/

Schofield leading the 'Wane Out' brigade before a ball has even been kicked. He's really never forgiven us for completely overshadowing his entire career. https://everythingrugbyleague.com/schof ... e-alright/

Why do we always have a downer on our national side, especially from ex players who should know better. Waney has picked the best available to him after a long season. Andy Akers was superb against Fiji . For what it's worth I think Samoa will be undercooked in that first game, I for one will be going and getting behind the team, because what you will get from a Waney team is 100% commitment.

It's sad. Great player was Schoey but he's talking nonsense. Williams has been out of sorts all year at a struggling Warrington but he's shown up well enough in his two games for England. Radley probably wouldn't have got near the Australia squad but playing Origin at some point in the future was very much a realistic possibility for him. How Sneyd being picked playing for Salford rather than Hull is somehow indicative of a Wigan bias is utterly beyond me!

Just another has been with an axe to grind

I think Williams is being judged by his teams performance rather than his own. I appreciate it's not all about stats but according to stats he's had a better season than Sneyd.
Warrington have been poor but as we know due to performances over recent years, if your pack isn't doing the job, Thurston wouldn't stand out in the team.

In fact Williams' stats stack up well against Lomax and Smith's too.

Schofield is the epitome of everything thing that is wrong with RL in this country.

Always focused on the negative and attempts to cause controversy at every opportunity.

And John Davidson is pushing it on social media

Mr Negative meets Mr Downbeat

I don’t get the Wigan old boys line at all. The squad is packed full of Saints players, NRL players etc and it just so happens some of his best options played under him at Wigan. That can’t be a huge surprise given the quality he had at Wigan. Any England coach would have Tomkins and Williams in their squad. The only one with a question mark is probably Micky Mac but the cupboards pretty bare at hooker.

There've also been a few withdrawals of key personnel. I'm not sure how that's Shaun Wane's fault.

Williams has been very good for wire this season. If the fans werent fixated with his marquee salary i doubt anyone would have a problem with the way he has performed. He has done as well as any other half back would with a shocking pack in front of him and no regular partner at 6/7.

Utter rubbish. He’s done nothing. it’s a lazy excuse using the pack. Salford’s pack was rubbish but look at Croft.

Good to see you have surfaced from your crypt. Williams is a class act and has proven it on both sides of the world. You will need to go back a long way to find a half back from Saints who has performed consistently well at NRL level, the last one was Bishop.

Welcome back Jean

You don't expect him to remember Tommy Bishop?

He probably doesn't remember Sean Long.

Williams was actually very good against the all stars, and what was Wane going to do when Johnny cried off?

For what its worth, the Mickey Mac is unfathomable.
I get that he’s good defensively but Ackers is in great form and really shone vs Fiji and has been outstanding for the second half of the season. Leeming, McShane and Daryl Clarke all offer more than Mickey.

Obviously Hodgson would have been the shoe in before his injury and had Roby stuck his hand up, he’d be hard not to pick.

I really don't get the Tomkins selection either, Welsby all day long at fullback for me, to be blunt he's like Tomkins used to be.

Is this the same Croft that nobody mentioned at all until a few weeks ago? I don’t recall you waxing lyrical about him in April.

Danny brough has been turning out for amateur side Emley. They’ve been easily beaten a few times- does that make brough a poor player? He’s better than any other player on the pitch by far but that doesn’t mean his team will win.
In case you hadn’t noticed it’s a team game- to suggest that Williams doesn’t deserve to be in the squad because the team he plays for is playing badly is crazy.

Thanks to fat Garry Schofield for the motivation

Thanks to WW69/LEBRON/JEAN etc for the motivation

Williams was MoM for me. Let’s give Waney credit, it was a coaching masterclass. WW69 is clueless, I bet his daughters are really proud of him though!

Williams fantastic in attack and defence, Welsby excellent bar the one error and Tomkins controlling everything from fb and 9, don't want to be critical after a performance like that but McIllorum looked like the weak link, be very lucky to keep the shirt, also the old stagers Hill and Cooper fully justified their selections with their stints

Be interesting to read Schofield's take on this afternoon's result.
Not too bad considering England had poor ream selection and average players.

Brilliant performance from England. I’m really pleased for Wane too. You always know you’ll get 100% commitment from a Wane team but they were outstanding today in all areas.

Williams was MOTM for me, he really was superb. Shows how bad the culture is at Warrington to see him perform so badly at club level. Farnworth and Young were brilliant too and obviously Welsby with a try and 3 assists showed up well. I hope his mistake with the interception doesn’t stop him trying things as he plays eyes up all the time and takes chances. Don’t want him to lose that part of his game.

Maybe our team will gain some respect now outside of our own country

Very strong all round. The strengths of Welsby/Williams outweighed the weakened long kicking game as it turned out. Watkins and Radley were fantastic. Would be nice to see Ackers come in and take advantage of those dominant forward carries but Wane is clearly building a team based on solid defence throughout.

Will be interesting to see how Samoa respond - Matt Parish gives the impression of a demotivated sponger to me and the players didn't seem to want to play for him today. Maybe they struggled with the short turnaround but that was an embarrassing day for them and a great day for SL and England.

Even without a decent coach or game plan, I expected Samoa to make more of a fist of it than that. They've got enough so-called stars from the NRL, but they were mostly outplayed individually as well.

The whole thing reeked to me of players who'd totally bought into the myth that the NRL is so superior to SL that all they'd have to do is turn up. Everything about them was very, very casual.

That's taking nothing away from the England team, who played like a real team and Waney, who more than answered his critics today.

My thoughts exactly.

Players in the southern hemisphere, they seem to think their league is the pinnacle (as do we in the northern hemisphere as well) but that may not be the case....