Could have been a lot worse, Tom Burgess must never play for England/GB ever again, the guy is a knock on machine, all in all it was an enjoyable game, even though we where nilled

So close, more composure in the Aus 20m zone and England could have won it, thought Gale threw some shocking passes in the second half (panic mode), all the effort wasted far too many times when near the Aus line (agree about Burgess) thought Lockers was miss for his calming influence and knitting play between the forwards and backs.

Probably a worse defeat for being so close and Aus were there for the taking in the second half - the only difference for me was they were much smarter on last tackle plays.

For a defeat, it was enjoyable but it’s not right to refer to Lockers missing when they were without Thurston and Inglis! Apart from a few kicks Gale was awful. Knock ons, poor passing and giving soft penalties away. Our forwards matched them but our 6 & 7 were a million miles behind. To be honest, we never looked like scoring!!

Thought we had a good dig. Lockers may well have proved the difference

And for me that is why we missed Lockers (who had played through the tournament and was apparently close to being available so it is a valid argument to say we missed him unlike the players you mention who take no part in the games prior) he helps the halves - Sam Burgess is a strong runner and tacklers but does not have the same linking abilities. We were crying out for some control/leadership in the attacking third.

Really enjoyed it although was utterly frustrated with the way the Aussies controlled our attack. Watkins, S Burgess, Widdopp and Graham were superb today and ran their blood to water as the Rugby analogy goes. Heightington was good when he came on also, really gave us some grunt and Lomax had a good dig when he came on. Tom Burgess and Luke Gale should have stayed at home. They have proved all tournament that they are not international standard. Luke Gale especially. Far too weak and the council cuts his hair. T Burgess is a monster and a powerful man but if you can't keep hold of the ball you are in the wrong game. Brown was also very poor today and as someone has already stated our halves are a million miles from the Aussie halves. If we had good kicking options and more strength at 6 and 7 we win that game all day long. Let's hope Williams and (an)other start to fulfill that potential. We need skillful halves with a good kicking game and a bit of bulk about them to be able to match the Australia's of this world.

with a hull fc hat on, would have like to have sneyd given at least a chance, hes the best kicker in the comp and plays big games well, also for me shaul derserved a go, pace to burn and backs up well, also imo Williams should be given a chance, might not make a difference but we just play the same players in our weakest postions

I'm still scratching my head at why Bennett thinks Bateman is the 2nd best English centre - its as clear as day that he prefers to run at opposition rather than round them. Its made all the more baffling that when SOL is injured and a place in the pack becomes available, he still plays him at centre!

One thing is for sure - Oliver Gildart and Tony Gelling wont be worried about competition from Bateman for their position at Wigan!

Attacking wise he is not even top 10 but in defence he would be one of the best. He was in to shut down Australia attack on his side. Something he did very well.

Correct. Bateman did well considering the flack he got for something beyond his control. Cudjoe would have been a lot more effective going forward though and is just as good if not better in defence. Don't know if he is injured but never heard his name mentioned once. Was all about Percival and Shenton who are both liabilities in defence and would have made things worse. MOS Luke Gale probably gets the wooden spoon award for performances for England because he offered the square root of sod all. I wouldn't have liked to have risked another Cas player purely on their Hollywood style of play last season on that basis with the exception of Hardaker who will soon be propping up the dole queue.

Shaul? Every time I watch him he seems to drop the ball or mess up... he is a decent SL player, against Australia he would just get repeatedly smashed and exposed.

I guess Sneyd cannot have been much worse than Brown, and has a decent short kicking game which we lacked in the final... but again, he would get heavily targeted in defence.

Williams just runs around like a headless chicken.

Cudjoe has been out with a knee injury. Don't think he'd have been picked anyway. Think Bennett pretty much decided his squad 12 months ago and pretty much stuck to it.

Shaul won't get a look in until he develops even the most minute passing game.
The likes of Gildart, Sutcliffe and Percival, even someone like Jake Connor should be trying to pull up trees in 2018, the left centre position is wide open.

agree with the latter but Shaul if he had been in the squad would have been the best FB in the squad. Some bad selections

I don't think Shenton is a bad defender, He was once, but he is a better all-round player now. He and Gildart are easily the best two left centres in my book.

Agree but he'll be 32 next year so think his time has passed unless it's Powell as Emgland coach next year.

Which is far from impossible...

passing isn't shauls biggest asset, its pace and scoring tries other fb cant, against the aussies imo we need somebody like that, but we will never know because he doesn't get picked, sneyd is the best kicker in sl, with the pack England have he would be good imo, 2 man of the matches at Wembley proves he can do it on the day unlike gale, but again he want be given a chance,

I would say Sneyd has a marginally better kicking game than Gale, but his defence is even worse, and he he doesn't offer the same running threat. Gale didn't have a great World Cup, but despite recent criticism he didn't go hiding, and did show an improvement game by game. Of course he's not in the same class as Cronk; no-one in SL is, and barely any in the NRL. Brown, OTOH, offered absolutely nothing. Williams and Gale need to up their game for the future.

Gale's long kicking we great and regularly put the Aussies in difficult positions. His kicking close to the line was appalling and he looked scares ball in hand. Never took the line on, passing around 5 metres away. Asked no questions of Australias defense at all and we reaped the benefits of it (ie, nothing). Kevin Brown was anonymous which is a shame as he really brought some life into the team.

Many people won't agree but we missed Lockers big time. He calms us down and offers an extra pivot. No surprise that we scored more points with him on. We looked completely lost once inside their 20 and our halves made some baffling decisions - Kevin Brown shifting it left when they had the numbers there and Gale kicking on the 2nd towards the end for example. Lockers would have straightened us up. I also think we missed Tomkins as a link. For all Widdop's strengths and he's been good at FB, Tomkins is fast with ball on hand. How many times has he put a tip on to the outside backs; it basically cuts out a person and you either find a gap or get on the outside much quicker.

It's frustrating to lose because we had it and it's only little things that we did wrong. Being faster with ball in hand is key in my book. We saw that Valentine Holmes for example bought the dummy that put Watkins into space (saved by a Dugan ankle tap). I wanted to see more 2 on 1 situations but we couldn't get it wide enough quickly enough.

gale offered none