Problem is England side is based around Sinfield and thats the problem he is not international class at 13 and 7. Where Lockers is and most SL sides have a better 7 than him. England will fail to get to the World Cup final with Mcnamara in charge.

Name a top 6 side in SL who would take him as their coach instead of who they have. The side is good the coach is a joke and to let Brough go so he can allow Burrows in was the worst decision he has done. Brough is not international class but he is better than Chase or Sinfield and could have gone in as either 6 or 7.

Not too much to disagree with there, but I do think the time for bellyaching is more than way past & we should be simply getting behind the team & pushing them on instead of winging who should be here or there (I refer m'lud to my previous point).

But we all like a good moan about stuff we can't control don't we.

great start Banana

15-14 down. Charnley knock on near own line to give the game away.
Sloppy all round by the sounds of it. Hopefully it'll be a case of shaking the cobwebs off before next week.

And here was me thinking that Roby could win the game on his own, given that some think him to be soooo good.

Unfortunately due to recent Wigan Warriors success some of the players might still be in detox mode due to amount of celebration drinks they have consumed and maybe will take them another week to get over. As a Saints fan you will have forgotten what success means apart from beating Wigan once a year.

Took 4 weeks after the Challenge Cup for them to get over it but Lockers took 8 weeks almost.

I'd have thought that even you would realise by now that your attempts to rile me will all be in vain. I could probably count 20 times you've tried to pick a fight and derail a thread. Normally I ignore you but for once I'll give you some advice - grow up and stop boring me.

Back to topic (again), I'm sure there'll be plenty knee-jerk reactions to the result but I'm not overly worried. The intensity today was that of a training session by all accounts. I'm sure next Saturday will be completely different.

I expect Watkins, Roby and Charnley all to start and hopefully O'Loughlin will be fit.

Great post.

I doubt there will be much kneejerkery here.. Only a friendly, and probably played in atrocious conditions at times. But of course you are right, MM not good enough, and Charnley lost us the game, glad we can agree on that..

What a dark day for English RL.

No excuses, losing to the italians at rugby league is nothing short of laughable.

It is laughable. But in a weeks time we could be celebrating a win over Australia. I wouldn't read too much into what happened today.

But fans will and the media will. These guys went to South Africa 1st class to train in near perfect conditions - then come back and serve up this dross. Mcbanana has already said their minds were on next week. Very unprofessional start and it can't be ignored. If it was a narrow win, that would be fine but we lost to Italy ffs...

I agree it's disheartening but you get this a lot in friendlies.

I am confident that the occasion will bring out the best in us next week.

I'm about to slit my wrists. The team couldn't win a raffle with two tickets after someone else had pulled the wrong one out of the tombola.

(tries desperately to manufacture another bit of faux anguish)



[size=85(the really important news is the 'tics loosing - perhaps we [ican [/ikeep them out of our hair for a little while longer)[/size

The French lost to the USA too.

This was a warm up & a trot-out for some of the squad that McN may not have made his mind up about. Given the tight turn around from the regular seasons in all bits of the planet, I'm fairly sanguine about this result (I take back what i said when this fixture was announced, given the number of ringers we've got in the squad this was probably on the cards from the start).

I remember Nobby saying some while ago on the BBC that the "smaller" teams would likely be the ones to keep an eye on & would provide some talking points - I'm referring to him as Septic Peg from now on.

Roby third in the world? You joking?

He wouldnt even be starting 9 in a lot of NRL sides, get a grip.

Just on the way back from the game and it wasn't pretty. The effort was woeful but that's not an issue really as it will be fixed up for next week. What is a worry is the total lack of cohesion within in the team and they look like they've not been coached at all (no surprise).

No use blaming an individuals. Watkins had a mare as did Cudjoe and Hock and guys like Sinfield, Mossop, Charnley, Widdop, Chase etc just weren't at the races but its the coach that worries me.

We are all entitled to opinions. You are in the minority.

Good luck in naming all these hookers that would keep him out of NRL sides.

That was awful

I think we all agree that Macbannana is the weak link here - if we do well in the WC it won't be down to him. Sinfield needs to play at 13 or be dropped. Don't understand Mossop's place in the team. Tomkins needs to play at 6 next week IMO.

I'd feel a lot happier if we had Widdop and Brough as our half backs, with Sinfield bringing the kicking tee on and Chase having a holiday in NZ.

maybe sthelens could do their part and produce some quality players and help England out? your beyond a joke with your bias towards anything sthelens

Its all Wigans fault.

Don't be silly its all Sinfields fault , nothing to do with the other 16 .