Yeah lets drop Tomkins and Burgess and replace them with Cockayne and Bailey while we're at it. I often think to myself 'If onlu I was more aggresive I could play for Wigan'

Robbie Farrah V Cherry Evans debates get the Aussies going although that's more one sided slagging o Farrah.

There was a big whinge over SBW'S turn around to play for NZ , he polarizes Kiwi fans opinions , though of late the haters have grown pretty quiet.

It's easier to see the glass as half full when your team has been winning

See you can come up with a cogent argument when you’re not just trying to slag Wigan off, because I agree with your point. IMO aggression alone is only part of being a good player (which is what I suppose you’re on about) so whether you play with 98, 99 or 100% aggression alone will not be enough. To be a top play you must have a natural ability and skill to play the game, and another point is that if you have aggression with talent but little self-control that just makes you a Hock!

Cheers mate, that was almost a compliment!



Anyway, team has been named:

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Cudjoe
Hall
Widdop
Sinfield
Graham
Roby
S Burgess
Ferres
Westwood
O'Loughlin

Burrow
Hill
G Burgess
Ablett

What a terrific game, sad we’re not in the final but well done to all those lads today, and I’ll even take mi hat off to McNamara, just for today!

How on earth can anyone watching that game not prefer it to any game of Rugby Union they've ever seen.

New Zealand's first try! WOW

Ive bagged Sinfield this world cup but thought he was excellent apart from his last tackle.

Union, like football, X factor and all the Saturday night garbage the media moguls feed us, is for the brain dead morons who can't be given anything sharper than a spoon to eat soup, lest they hurt themselves... RL is too fast, and involves more thought than there tiny, addled minds can cope with!!!!

Did i go too far?

Whet over to BBC 2 to watch Australia guess what was on FLOG IT ????????????????

Should have put his last kick into touch too, but other than those 2 points I agree.

That was the killer, just like Finch vLeeds two years ago.
If Sinfield was playing for Leeds that ball would have been either in touch or kicked dead. It's not like him at all and particularly today because he superb and was in the running for m.o.m.

Watching the Union now. I'd said to my children after the England/New Zealand game that if I lived to be 100 I'd never see a better union game than we'd just had the privilege of watching. How do they get the crowds they do?

You eat soup with something sharp?

Agree with rest of the post but please use a spoon yourself next time you have soup.

I was in "Mild rant" mode...



Too much Mild...

It was a fantastic game of rugby played by two superb sides. The second semi though was not good. That's going to be the challenge you feel, to get more games of the quality of the first and less like that of the second.

Hopefully we'll be able to see a full strength England side with all of its NRL talent on a more regular basis than has been the case recently.

Good God someone else who drinks mild.

On a more serious note, if the SL governing body cannot get a major sponsor and a better TV deal after todays game the game is in serious trouble.

As for the game you can find a few faults if you want, Lockers giving a few pens away in the second half, G Burgess giving away a pen with the head tackle in the last couple of min and Sinfield not booting the ball in touch and then flying out of the line and missing the tackle on Johnson.
But as a plus the England team sweat blood today, congratulations to the lot of them.

The turning point for me was at the start of the second half. Locky made a half break and got us in the front foot gave us a quick play the ball and Kiwi's were still getting inside. Burrow had all the time in the world from dummy half to feed a kicker or put a good kick in himself. He seemed caught in 2 minds and ended up putting a god awful kick in along the floor, straight to Locke who collected the ball in his 40 Kiwi's were in the front foot from that point on scoring in that same set and shortly after getting the penalty.

Momentum came back our way when Tomkins fielded a high kick and made a half break getting us going forward again and we retook control.

Regards Sinfield he had a good game but came up short when he was tested at crucial times. Poor kick selection on several occasions but especially at the end, the missed tackle for the try, and yes I know it was a tough one to make but it had to be made, and also the missed conversion that normally he would knock over in his slippers for Leeds. It's moments like that, that separate test players from good domestic players, and he came up short.

Moving forward I would love a change of coach, not using the full bench was a huge mistake for me, and also see Westwood, Sinfield and Burrow officially retire from Internationals.

thats a very Wigan-centric view of the game. Lockers also gave away several pens in the 2nd half which stopped the pressure and allowed the Kiwis to play in our half. Sam dropped the ball on 1st tackle in a key attacking position mid way through the 2nd half ....
In a game of 80 minutes there are always individual errors that can be picked on. However, in the first 60-70 minutes there is sufficient time to recover from them.
The secret to winning big games is how you handle the pressure at the end. the previously 70 minutes can count for nought - it is putting the game to bed which shows class and composure, and that is what we lacked.

From a long term perspective, there are real positives that can come out of this. We have lost yes, but we can hold our heads high in the quality of that game yesterday. We finally have a stand-off that looks at home, and the old guard will now retire/will retire before the next WC (Burrow, Sinfield, Westwood, Lockers). Graham, the Burgess boys, Hill will be there in 4 years time. Sam will have the NRL experience, Hall and Charnley will be at their peak. there is a lot of class there to be supplemented by whoever comes though in the next few seasons.

With a new coach who is able to pick the right combinations and build squads that are not biased by personal grudges/loyalties, we will be a threat again in 4 years time (so long as we get the right coach).

I must say I couldn’t understand why he didn’t bang that last kick into to touch, just to run the time down and give everybody a little bit of a breather. Plus his goal kicking wasn’t quite up to his usual high standard, but we’ll never know what could have been, we only know what is, and what should have been!

What did you all think of the final?. I thought Australia were in a different class and I would add that either Sonny Bill has lost a lot of ability or he has been overhyped in the past. It has been a tremendous tournament though and to get a record crowd for a match in which there were two foreign teams shows that there is a public demand for our game. The challenge for the RL Management is to build on this success and surely we can now find worthwhile sponsors for all our competitions.

Overall I really enjoyed it, shame the final was a blowout but you can't blame Australia for that.
That must be as close as you can get to a perfect performance, hopefully the RFL can get their act together and build on the success of the tournament, if we go into next season without a title sponsor there really isn't much hope.

Until Hetherington & Lenagan work out who's got the biggest, no sponsor will look sideways at the SL. The power-struggle & whatever format we'll be using needs to be sorted PDQ or the ridicule will (rightly) begin all over again & we'll be back to square one.
Regardless of how well received & played the WC was (well, mainly).

We also need to get the Broncos situation sorted asap - there needs to be a successful London side in Super League at all costs...

Might be proved wrong (you never know, miracles happen!)



Let's just hope it's not another Stobart's fiasco.