I was always confident but not 54 points confident.

Thought the entire team were fantastic.

The first score in the second half was massive, it basically broke the Samoan spirit.

They are a very physical team but far from refined in the finer skills and clearly not well coached.

Williams shows how good he is when pulling in the England shirt. It’s bizarre how he is levels above his club form.

A few lads I think will be in there swan song for England and there is a period of transition coming but that looks to have fired them up.

Shaun Wane deserves a lot of credit. Tactically excellent and very motivated. Clearly picked out the weakness in defending the short kicking game.

Shouldn’t have to get out of third gear now till the quarter finals.

Great start to the tournament from an English perspective.

Thought that England were in a transitional period coming into this WC with Graham, S Burgess, O'Loughlin, Roby, Mcgilvary and more missing from the 2017 final. On the back of that performance it looks like we're well placed to handle that transition. Some good replacements in Welsby, Radley, Young, Knowles etc Probably the last run for Tomkins, Hill, Cooper and Hall but some other good replacements in the pipeline as well.

Pretty much agree with that. Poor stuff from Samoa, who would have expected that their much-vaunted back-line would be outplayed by Young, Farnworth, and co? Herbie's had no game-time after a bad injury, but I have high hopes for him in an England shirt.

I do think, though, kicking game still not good enough from Englsnd. The Aussies showed the way tonight.

Not to mention prob last time for Watkins who I thought was great.
Wane prob pick Ackers against France,Bring Bateman in for me aswell.

Wane said yesterday anyone in the squad who didnt play yesterday will play the next game

We were at the game, Sam Tomkins was outstanding, what you probably didn't pick up from the t.v. coverage was his work off the ball, he was everywhere and his organization of the defence superb. Can we get Victor Radley to Wigan please?

Do you have evidence that this is the case or is it just a hunch?

An impressive result by the team indeed. That attendance was also really impressive, over 43,000+. Especially as the venue is/was, outside our traditionally strong support areas.

A shame that the attendance wasn't backed up by good crowds in Sunday's games. Not looking too good for the tournament's prospects of success - at least in terms of bums on seats. I do feel for the organisers in some ways - they've been up against it all the way through with the postponement, the cost of living and even the power outage before the first game. Ticket prices are strangely high in places though and I've never been convinced that trying to pad out the WC with no-hopers like Greece, Scotland, Jamaica etc is the best way to go.

Agreed about some of the ticket prices and you can guarantee the ridiculously priced ones are right opposite the tv cameras, never a good look on the telly.
The organisers shouldn't be giving them away but bar the England games the group stages are going to be pretty sply attended at those prices

That lad Williams was awful again yesterday. Where is Wally? Sorry, I meant WW69 when you need him?

Quite a conundrum for Wane as to his strongest spine. Tomkins and Williams will be certainties so he has to try and fit Welsby and Sneyd in. Welsby offers that X factor yet Sneyd has a great kicking game not to mention his goal kicking which would be vital in a tight game.

Not sure what he will do but my guess will be Tomkins/Welsby/Williams

I think he'll pick his best defenders first and foremost, so I expect the same side as played Samoa.
I'd like to see either Sneyd or Ackers on the bench as an option but it wouldn't surprise me if he went with 4 forwards again.

Suggesting Sneyd on the bench? What a waste of a spot that would be.

What value would that add?

I think moving forward we will now see the side that started against Samoa with Bateman in for McMeeken.

I'd have Ackers personally but Sneyd could be used to spell Mickey with Williams going to 9 for a bit. If there was an injury in the backs your could shift Welsby to cover and use Sneyd in the halves.
His kicking could turn a tight game, it gives us a different option if the (very similar style) pairing of Williams and Welsby are struggling to break down the tougher defences.
I don't think it's that daft.

I'd like to se Batchelor in the 17. I think he brings that extra bite and intensity in defence and kick chase that makes a big difference in tight games.


Assuming Radley will play 13 then personally McMeeken misses out for Bateman and my preference would be Batchelor replacing Knowles on the bench.

To be fair, Knowles provides a higher intensity in defence and kick pressure chase than Batchelor. I know it was only against Greece but both Brown and Graham commented on his efforts in these areas highlighting one example of kick pressure at 74 mins with the game out of sight. I woudl argue his qualities are better than Batchelors in a high intensity tight game.

That's all good and well, and I understand where you're coming from Stu, but Knowles simply doesn't create enough at this level. The difference between him and Radley in this area has been stark.

I'm not saying instead of or in front of Radley, I'm saying instead of Batchelor as a bench option

thats where i've really enjoyed some of the commentary / post match analysis. In all the games i've watched, the former players have spoken about the little things that as fans we may not see week in week out. Just a subtle little shepherd of a player putting kick chase pressure on, getting back in the defensive line to put pressure on a kicker after 74 mins in a dead game etc. i think the majority of the commentary and post match has been excellent with Vossy, Jammer, Amor, Peacock, Brown, Henderson etc. I know Sky arent covering the world cup, but surely they can see with C4 coverage and the BBC coverage of the world cup, how amateur / poor some of their current team are

onto the little, things, they are the things that they reckon will win us the world cup (if we go onto win it)

Agreed. Vossy is brilliant. The way he engages with fans on Twitter is outstanding. He loves our comp and the UK in general and doesn't denigrate either like most Aussies do.

His food ratings and food videos throughout have been superb and very entertaining. I've lived in Wigan for 21 years and love living here. Indeed I only go back to St Helens for the games now so I get quite defensive if outsiders criticise Wigan as a town. Seeing Vossy talking about Galloways pies was brilliant and then to see him engage with their official account too was even better.

Sky could certainly learn a lot from BBC and C4 and hopefully we will see Vossy commentate on SL at some point as he has admitted that "it is an itch that he needs to scratch"

Yeah i think i am in favour of that. Im not a huge fan of Batchelor but his improvement this season has been huge there is no doubt about that but i do worry about his errors in a high intensity game. I think Knowles is more assured in that area and bring much more intensity into the collision. Knowles on the bench for me too.

Vossy is a breath of fresh air. Dave Woods is good though i think too as is Davies and Amor. I can't tolerate Noble too much, i think he talks too much nonsense and Kevin Brown is very articulate too. Graham has been very good also. Wilkin, i don't know why but he always seems to come across 10x better on the BBC than he dos on Sky.

I do have one big bug bear with all of them though (except Voss and Woods) and that is calling players by their nicknames, Mickey Mac, Tommy (Makinson) etc. We are trying to engage a wider audience outside of the usual RL speccies so a bit more professionalism is required in areas like this for me. The Sky commentary team are dreadful for things like this.