England were absolute crap. Robinson looked threatening in attack but to be honest even he's rubbish for an international player and can't defend very well, showed by him getting caught out for the first try. The England just have absolutely no width whatsoever. It's all concentrated down the middle. There's little point having Sam Tomkins as fullback because the ball rarely goes out to him out wide. The one time it did there was no space because there were no dummy runners, he runs back the whole width of the field and not one player offers any sort of option, they all stand still. Myler was garbage, he's basically not present in attack unless someone makes a break. Sinfield was awful. Peacock looked nowhere near good enough, either he's not fit or he's past it. No threat provided by the centres (but what chance do they have with no attacking width).
I think the bulk of the forwards performed reasonably well, but on the whole the England side don't look up for it and the RFL should take the most blatantly obvious decision they will ever have to make and sack Steve McNamara!

Yet WE only lost to a last second try that came from a forward pass.

We lost to a bunch of players who for the most part had never even played together before and had one week preparation. A lot of those England players have played together before. None of those players bar Leuluai would play international rugby for Australia or New Zealand. The Exiles weren't even made up of the best overseas players!!! There were so many quality players missing which made it a team that England really should have beaten but yet again the team played like they'd never seen each other before, had no width and didn't seem up for the game (bar Westwood). "WE" were crap!

I bet the Aussies, Kiwi's & Taffys are shltting their pants ........................

I couldnt really care less if we won or lost. I was looking for a good performance, something to show that we were improving and had learned from the last x number of years. Little things like having a structure, being able to defend out wide, having some moves, players knowing what they are doing etc. If that last try hadnt have been scored and we had won then it wouldnt have made things any better. Even the Exiles with hardly any preparation and no games together looked a lot more structured and threatening. The England players have been playing internationals together, have had training camps and regular get togethers and still looked like a bunch of players that had no idea and had only just met up this morning. It wasnt even a particulalry fast or intense game and was a million miles behind the speed and intensity that Australia and New Zealand play at. Despite this we still lost and at times looked amateurish and inept.

WE weren't at full strength but we won't mention that.

It's a great game, it shows which players we need to get rid of for the 4 nations

Peacock
Sinfield
Morley (that really pains me to say that) save him for the league
Wilkin

And your point is what exactly? We missed a handful of players and the Exiles were also missing players. The performance was still poor no matter who played and it is very rare, if ever, England have their full team playing anyway due to injuries. I would be fairly certain that come the 4 Nations we will have a few players out again as will the other teams. It is certainly no excuse.

Now imagine if Exiles had Mick Monaghan at 9 and J Monaghan on the wing instead of Smelly
King in the centre
Hoffman in the pack
Dureau in the halfs

they would have torn us a new one

But what if we had Brough and Widdop/Brown in the halves, Burgess and Ellis in the forwards? Much better contest.

Lomax, Foster, Cudjoe, McGillvary...

Plus Roby at Hooker.

Widdop, Burgess and Ellis was never going to happen plus Ellis is usually rubbish for England

Brough and Brown would have been my ideal 6&7 tonight but hey ho.

Jesus I never thought of that



That makes the whole thing even worse !

there was 0 team spirit 0 team cohesion and 0 intensity.

Shenton and Bridge were gash, Sinfield a Joke, Myler the less said the better. Morley and Peacock past it.

The only players that can walk away from that farce with any respect are Westwood and Graham, the rest were either poor to embarrassing and the problem is attitude and application rather than talent.

Widdop and Brown were awful in the last 4 Nations. Brough is unproven and is no world beater even in Super League.

The concern is that most of the exiles players are at the wrong end of there careers and have a sprinkling of players who would struggle to make it in the nrl and the odd player (tommy) who is currently successful at international level with NZ

The England team is simply not good enough and it does not posses any quality depth.

If we cant beat a cobbled together has beens team we are really struggling

Brown is pants at international level. He had his chance in Australia and blew it. Or rather, couldn't even figure out how to blow.

Brough would have made a difference with his kicking game assuming the rest of the team would have known what to do in response but he's unknown at that level so he might have been a flop. But Roby would also have made a difference. A good halfback who could sidestep and be all creative with his feet would have been good too.

We looked completely dull in attack and the coaching is clearly second rate.

Brown/Brough/Robinson have played well and knowing each others game i think they'd do better this time round.

Kevin Brown shouldn't get anywhere near the England side. I have no idea why people seem to think he should be in the side. Doesn't really have any of the attributes you'd expect from an international stand off. He'd offer nothing.

I think Widdop, Brough, Burgess, Ellis and Roby would have made a difference for England but the Exiles could have produced a much better side.

England definitely have a long way to go. I also have no idea why Ryan Hall gets in the side. He doesn't even look like a winger; no pace at all. There are better players that England could have on the wing.

How many first team games had Widdop played at that point?

I would go with Widdop and Brough on current form, that my change come the end of the season.

Yet Widdop has been tearing it up in the NRL this year.

I really cant believe that people think that the performance tonight can be excused by 5 or 6 players missing.

There was no structure, no moves, a complete inability to defend out wide again, players looked clueless, the list goes on and on. This was against a fairly average team and was a million miles behind the speed and intensity that Australia and New Zealand play at. Regardless of injuries the performance should have been much better and the team should have at least shown that it had learned from the lessons of the past and improved on what it has done consistently wrong. It obviously hasnt.

I can't help but wonder if the players had their other weekend matches in mind. Sam Tomkins for instance seemed to rarely run the ball in returning a kick, he kept giving the ball to Ryan Hall to take it in. Lots of players in the England side just didn't seem to want to play with any intensity. The fixture needs to be played on a stand alone weekend or during midweek when there's a decent amount time for players to recover.

I actually thought the same at times. Even on the Exiles side the likes of Pat didnt seem to do half as much work as normal.