Agreed.

I just can't believe that McNamara was the best candidate available. But I suppose when the brief for the position is British and full time, it doesn't leave us with many options.

The League Freak gave a good summary a while ago: www.leaguefreak.com/news.php Article at the bottom of the page "Should England Be Coached By A Professional, Or A Comedian?"

The League Freak gave a good summary a while ago: www.leaguefreak.com/news.php Article at the bottom of the page "Should England Be Coached By A Professional, Or A Comedian?"

Rather unfair. When Lewis took over after the 2000 World Cup on and off the field debacle , the RFL was virtually bankrupt.

oh dear oh dear. sad day for the national side.

I meant that to read as when Lewis arrived, he turned them into......

I like how people are complaining about this and saying were screwed. Am i missing something or havent we been crap for decades now??? Hardly going to get any worse with McNamara.

Which is OK if "not getting any worse" is the height of their ambition.

But lets face it, it is... People are living in dream land if they think we can take on the Aussies any time soon. We havent got any better in years, if making a final on home soil and subsequently blowing it in the final 20 mins is improvement then no wonder we cant compete with the Aussies. You could have the best coach in the world and England would hardly improve. Its quality players that we need that we just dont have right now in certain positions.

Your right it would be impossible for a good coach to make any difference with the same set of players, I mean look at maguire and brown, hardly improved those teams have they!

Exactly what we were saying about Wigan last season.

You are aware that the England coach gets just a week or 2 to train his team. not an enitre off season. Comparing maguire's impact on Wigan is hardly the same, you dont get enough time to influence your players as much in the national side as you do for a club side. Do you honestly think Wigan would have improved as much as they have in a just a week or 2????

Of course i dont but a better coach will get more out of the players in a shorter period of time, look at england football, tripe under mclarren, walked the qualifying under cappello and they only have 2 weeks together with the same rubbish players!

A good coach can improve mediocre players more than a mediocre coach can!

I don't think a top coach would be aiming for "not getting any worse".

True but i dont think many coaches could improve the England team to level where we can compete with the Aussies. As for the England football team, alot of those players are great for the clubs but then play crap for England, there much better than they have shown. With England rugby, we just dont have the qaulity players we need.

Who would you given the Engalnd job to???

Im not saying they will or that we should be think that. My point was that people are getting annoyed because McNamara is the new coach and saying how England are screwed. All im saying is that its hardly going to get worse with him. I wouldnt have picked him but i certainly dont think its cause to get so annoyed. What top coach would we have appointed???

I dont think we can compete either, however that dont meen we should settle for second best!

If its only a two week job like you say, I would have hunted down one of Phil Gould, Wayne Bennett or Brian Smith (who i see has a job with england). Reach for the stars, you may not get there, but it will certianly be better than aiming at the height of a rattlesnakes jockstrap like Macnammara!

cant argue with that

I think having Smith in there will help, but i wouldnt want to see him as the England coach (but thats because he's doing well for the Roosters this season)

Im not for one min saying we would have got those, and who knows they may have been approached, but seriously dennis betts! Hes been out of the game for years, the other coaches interviewed are even worse.

If I want a job doing on my house, i get the best guy i can, not some one who will 'do' and has a track record of average, I want the guy who stinks of awesomness!

TBF i think Brian Smith is a great appointment, and i hope he actually does most of the work and macnamara is more of a front man!

When i saw that list of the coaches interviewed i could hlep but laugh, we have nobody. Well the good think about Smith is he likes his discipline, and he has plenty of knowledge on the NRL, and he can also keep a check on our 3 pommies down there



Unfortunatley any good coach wouldnt want the England job. If your a good coach why would you give up your club to coach a national side full time that has around 4 or 5 games a year?

McLaren and Sven had good records in the qualifiers as has Capello, who hasn't proven anything yet when it matters.

How can you say McLaren had a good record in qualifiers when under him they were unable to qualify for Euro 08

Completely agree and I have thought the same thing myself. The standard of coaching across the board needs to improve not just at a few clubs like us.

When we went to the GF playoff format that was apparently going to transform our national side as the intensity of the play off format would result in much better players up to the rigours of competing with the Aussies. Well that was yet another RFL inspired miracle cure that hasn't panned out like that.

We have been doing the playoffs since 1998 and we are still as bad internationally and the standard at some clubs is still poor. The RFL under wood tinker with the plAY-OFFformat, do things like the Magic weekend but fail to address the underlying poor standards.

I mean what has transformed Wigan this season? Several seasons as semi-finalists in the play-offs, the odd game in Cardiff/Edinburgh or the arrival of a new coach?

They need to stop tinkering with the game in the hope changes Wood comes up with will deliver a higher standard and take on board what has transformed Hudds, Wire and Wigan - good coaching - and see if they can do something to improve that aspect of the game.

Dave

I still believe less games will help improve intensity.

The reason we struggled for suitable candidates is because we wanted a full-time coach. Who really is going to be interested in watching a few games every weekend and then coach for about four or less games a season? Coaches miss the full-time environment. Tony Smith was the perfect example - how long did he last? New Zealand and Australia don't have full-time coaches because they don't need to. It's only one mid-season game and then a tournament at the end of the year.

I don't see why the coach has to be British either. They don't adopt that attitude in football. They took that route once and hired McClaren and we failed to make the Euro's. Now, they have finally seen sense and hired the best man for the job, regardless of nationality. We should have done the same. New Zealand did when Wayne Bennett shadowed Steven Kearney. We should have adopted a similar setup.

If Wigan can find a Michael MaGuire then so should the RFL. A young NRL coach with all the latest training techniques/methods (not to mention an extensive knowledge of Australia/New Zealand and their players) who fancies a challenge at the end of the season should have been given a go. After last seasons campaign I had genuine hope that we were progressing as a nation. Kyle Eastmond and Sam Tomkins were ripping it up with Richie Myler also in the frame. More players heading over to Australia - Ellis, Burgess, Flanagan (Widdop in there too). The potential is there.

I'll give McNamara my support, but you can't help but think, can McNamara really coach a side to beat Tim Sheens' Australian side?

You have my support - Good luck!

To be honest it would be nice to see less Leeds/Saints players in there.

Let's see what he's got.