Actually Ellis was but I agree Sinfield had a good second half.

butter fingers burgess, westwood cant and doesnt wanna pass, moore never an international hooker, myler dont know what the hype is about, shenton nothing but ordinary, peacock and morley finished at international level, graham seems to have lost his (over) enthusiasm of taking the world on and already looks burnt out, roby not the impact player he was

but was completely missing in the first half!

btw time to change your avatar after tonight

Playing outside lee smith will be good practice for playing outside yeamo next season for him



To be honest I hope he gets dropped and replaced by fox. He doesn't need to be playing for an international side that will likely get humiliated next week at this stage of his career

england couldn't overcome a 20 point start.

im not usually one to slag off england (i went to watch the world cup thinking we could win it) but tonight was bloody embarrassing. france abysmal, i dont understand how england managed to be worse in the first half. also it was played in front of nobody despite people not been able to get tickets!

shocking 1st half by england

didnt think the props for us were at the game at all

Can we import that Kiwi referee for Super League?

I thought he had a good game, was able to rely on his own judgement on every try apart from briscoes', knowing our lot they would have referred nearly all of them

And was correct every time. Even with the benefit of the telly I had to check the replays for a couple. Plus the game flowed yet was disciplined - stuck a cane in the ground with the first "on report" then rightly got rid on the next misdemeanor. Liked his insistence on the quick play the ball too - no slowing down of the game for him.

Did well, I thought.

Although he bagged another try I thought Tom had a quiet game tonight. Really needed to get involved a little more but seemed a bit too nervous.

Scott Moore I thought looked like a handful although he made some errors. Maybe a bit over enthusiastic at times but I think he's our 9 for Aussie.

Eastmond for me turned the game when he came on. Cracking little player thats surely earnt that number 1 shirt.

Shenton, S Briscoe & possibly Matty Smith to lose out on that performance.

Matty smith??????????????????????????

I thought Scott Moore was awful and cannot believe he's an international but I suppose that can be said about a fair few of the squad.

I agree with you on Eastmond though, I really like him.

I fear the worst against Australia. I was in Melbourne last year when they kicked our backsides and I think were in for another hammering.

I would bring leon pryce in on the wing and put Briscoe in the centre ahead of shenton.

Briscoe ws quiet but did what he had to and took his try well and looked fairly solid. England were shocking in the first half but were much better in the second, some encouraging signs and Eastmond at fullback is a potential winning move by TS.

Tom Did not get a lot of ball at all and was shooed away from acting half a lot of times when he tried to get involved down the middle, ran the ball out three times hard in the first half, spilled one really difficult skier under pressure and took his try well. Did what was called on to do well, which if everyone else had done in a shocking performance we would have won by 50. There were some poor pack performances and I think Carvell will be back!

For me though it will be harsh if Tom loses his place! Just my opinion though!

I thought he did exactly what he was asked to do TBH.

He got little to no service, came inside a few times to take the ball up, defended well, and took his try well. Not sure what else some folk were expecting.



One of the better performers in an overall poor England performance I thought.

I thought he did his job, had very little service, I fully expect him to be included in the next match..

Well done lad

Are people forgetting that brilliant one on one steal he pulled off as France looked certain to score. I was sat about 10 metres away and for m that was the best part of the game. Good to see a Fev lad doing well.
Personally i'd drop Shenton (he looked knackerred) ut im not sure who id put in his place, wilkin maybe?

That ball steal was world class, shame Stevo seemed to think the ball just popped out on it's own. Though having said that I don't think Stevo was actually watching the same game that Sky were broadcasting.

I noticed that a lot as well. Just as the French were on the back foot you've got a speed merchant rushing in to get a quick PTB and a scoot and what happens? He gets shooed away for a pass and a drive back up the middle. Was Agar there giving advice?

I thought he was awful whistle happy, too slow in making decisions etc etc

Would be a worse ref than what we have over here already.

It didn't even get mentioned in commentary, was a brilliant bit of play by Tom.
Well done lad.

Do you think thats Tony Smiths deliberate plan to make him feel comfortable on the international stage, make him feel like he is playing for his club side?

Is that sarcasm Dave T? it's hard to tell when it's in writing, because I genuinely thought the ref was excellent. Every incident was allowed to run to see what advantage, if any, was made. He took a grip of the forward passes and tidied up the ruck. And those two guys who normally just run up and down the touchline were actually used as touch judges and assisted in decision making. I know it's based on only seeing one match but I'd be very happy if that guy replaced some of our usual ref's.

Nope was been serious, thought he was garbage.