Tough one to take that. We didn’t show up until the last 20, and still managed to blow it.

Our sole focus moving forwards needs to be 2025 and the World Cup in France.

Players like, Tomkins, Whitehead, Watkins, Cooper, Hill, McIllorum, Hall and maybe a few others need to retire from international rugby.

We have a 3 year cycle to prepare for a tilt at it again.

For the rest of the week I am officially now a plastic Samoan.

I hope the final is an event worthy of what has been generally a cracking tournament in my opinion.

Still not sure how we went from being extremely well drilled and all working together to looking like we'd only just started playing together.

There were so many points where we should have scored but blew it and gave away two very soft tries.

Even when we did the hard job of getting back into it we then c*cked up extra time with mistakes and handed the game to Samoa.

So frustrating as I thought we actually looked like a very good team and we let the occasion get to use. The first set we should have scored. Samoa lucky not to play with a man down all game, but strangely it went downhill once they lost a man for 10 mins.

I did wonder why Burgess only came back with 13mins to go.

All I'd criticise Wane for is sticking with MM. Otherwise, as said, the way we went from looking well-drilled and organised to, that, was very disappointing.

And as I was sat at home on my settee, I'm not going to bitch about the crowd. But if it had been held at the DW or Headingley, we'd have probably won that game. Who else could we play at right centre? Wardle?

Marks for our spine, then?

Tomkins - pretty poor by his standards, I thought. Kicking game not great.
Williams - patchy, but still the best of them, Most of our better efforts came through him.
Welsby - Who?
MM - poor.
Radley - Pretty good, but gave away that awful interception try.

Tomkins - should be his last game at fullback. Should play 6 or not at all. He had to take over the direction of the team in the last 15 after Williams went missing and Welsby was invisible.
Williams - as you say, patchy. Not good enough to lead a team.
Welsby - bottle job. Should never play 6 at international level again.
McIlorum - looked old and way off the pace. He’s a shadow of what he was in defence, never mind attack.
Radley - worst game he’s had, no real impact for me other than the interception.

I wanted Sneyd on the bench as an insurance policy as well.

Tomkins -done at this level - no pace anymore, easy for defenses to read now.
Willaims - our only good stuff came off him, tried so hard but let down by too many others
Welsby - poor, looked lost at times, big game nerves?
MM- no running threat, similar to Powell does not get defenses going backwards at all, too static
Radley was decent - way better than Knowles

Also
Thompson was poor when he came on thought Cooper was much better but we lacked go forwaard once Burgess/Hill combination was off.

The Watkins/Young combination was poor - Young showed a lot of inexperience.

At this stage of the tournament you cannot afford to lose 1 of your forwards off the bench for a halfback. How can you not see that Sneyd on the bench is a bad idea?

He’s either good enough to start or isn’t.

Radley I thought was immense today apart from the intercept. His numbers will back it up.

Welsby has been poor this tournament but he is out of position but still would have expected more given his quality

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m looking all over the internet and everyone is bagging the selections but there was hardly a murmur before the game. Throughout the comp I’d have liked the change up option Ackers could bring from the bench but I can see why Wane didn’t go that way.

As a team we simply saved our worst for our most important game and that’s so disappointing. A few had off days and saved comfortably their worst performance for today but I always like to treat the national side as a team and not bag certain individuals. We just didn’t play well enough. If only they had the game all over again, I’m sure we’d nail it but you don’t get a second chance in a World Cup.

I don’t have the stats to hand but what minutes did Thompson and McMeeken do? I would say both did very little on first view of the game and another bench spot could’ve been given to an Ackers or Sneyd as we had no variety at 9 either, plus Watkins has played in the pack all year. That’s more than enough variety but we were ultimately let down by a good number in any case.

Should never have played 6. Always looking for a pass rather than taking the line on. Mind you, apart from Lomax, who is now in his thirties, I don’t know where we are going to find a stand off who posses the quality to play at this level. Hopefully, one will appear before the next World Cup.

Well, there's Harry Smith. Do you see many other contenders in the halves? Although the result today wasn't really a comment on who had the best half-backs (although they did), it was about, which side played as a team.

He’s not at this level but hopefully he can elevate himself to international standard. A lot of the players who played today will not feature at the next World Cup and therefore Waney will have to look to the next generation.

Lewis Dodds.

Harry Smith is nowhere near international level yet.

Lewis Dodd.

Well Welsby is a Wiganer so he can be blamed aswel as all the other connected England players.

We got beat by a better team,Wane didnt make the mistakes on the pitch,we got back in the game a few times to win but didnt .I think that sums it up.

Watching from quite low behind the sticks it's sometimes difficult to get an overall perspective but I thought:

- we looked disorganised and lacked composure in attack. Under pressure we really missed an experienced organising half. Lomax would have made a huge difference. In a pressure game it showed Welsby isn't an international 6. Not bagging him as he's a great player, but lack of experience and craft showed.

We criminally underutilised Young on the wing. I can't remember any shape on the right to get that side attacking Samoa. Again, lack of direction from the halves.

We resorted too much to one out forward hit ups and made very few offloads. Made it easy for Samoas big middles to read and defend. This may have been a tactic to tire them but wasn't effective. I think speed and accuracy of passing off the floor was poor today. Again, put Roby in and we are a different team.

All in all very frustrating as we played well below potential and made Samoa look better than they were when it really mattered.

Really disappointing but I strongly feel the blame should not be put onto Shaun Wane. Maybe Ackers should have been on the bench as an option. But ultimately we lost because of some really poor decision making/lack of concentration from players you wouldn't expect.

Wane can't control Kallum Watkins having his worst game of the tournament after playing so well early on (the dropped ball on the tryline, two poor defensive reads which led to trys). He can't control the Tomkins forward pass, the Welsby fumble, the Radley intercept pass, the simple dropped ball from Dom Young, the Whitehead brain explosion at the end of the 80.

The players cracked under the pressure and blew it.

Wardle playes Left centre.

The next World Cup is in 2025 and that signals a changing of the guard, out with the old (literally) and in with the new. There's only one problem where do we find the new talent to play at international level? I look around Super League and I am struggling to raise a team, hopefully we will see some players come to the fore. There will be yet another review as to why we have failed and, like all the others, it will just gather dust. We need to embrace meritocracy rather than dumbing down our game. Fundamental change within the game is essential let's hope IMG can deliver it.

Looking forward it is 9 that worries me. I think we are in good shape in other positions but I just see at the moment a lack of quality at 9.

Lots of expectation around Bailey Hodgson and hopefully he can break through in the next 2 years at Newcastle.

We have no depth and much less quality than the Australians.

From the outset Waney selected Watkins at right centre. Rowley knows he's can't hack it there so plays him second row where he's had a very good season. Trouble for Shaun was that there wasn't an Intl English right centre either in the NRL or SL so he played Watkins there. Didn't take long for him to get found out in the semi.

As for the future it isn't that bad. Welsby can play full back. Young and Makinson will be available. At centre there's Newman, Wardle, King and Percival. Williams will be available as will Dodds and Smith. That's of course if they are all fit!

As for forwards, there do seem to be plenty young big forwards around but we will;l need two ball players probably at 9 and 13.

That backline will not worry the Aussies. Makinson will be 34 and I am not sure that his body can take what he puts it through for another three years.