Moz out of 4 nations! Breaking on ssn. BIG blow

Yup. Although to be fair to Shenton he wasn't getting much decent ball himself. Didn't help that the completely ineffectual Brown was the HB on that side of the pitch.

Atkins and Hall on the other side are a disaster waiting to happen. Barely a brain cell between them and defensively weak. The Ozzies will run through them at will.

The whole 3/4 line is poor. I think briscoe has plenty of quality and potential but he's nowhere near what I would class as real international standard at present. As for the rest, probably the worst 3/4 line we've fielded in the time I've been watching the game and none of them would have got in the sides of 10 or 20 years ago.

The 1/2 backs have been hit by injuries to pryce, eastmond and maguire who would have all been in instead of brown

Going back 15 years or so when we had the likes of Radlinski, Offiah, Newlove, Davies and Robinson available and still never won a series, it's clear that the quality of backs we produce has stepped back hugely. Didn't we have overseas quotas of 3 in those days?

The back line is also very young and I can understand the need for them to develop together with the 2013 World Cup in mind. All played well in the first half IMO and although I dont think we have the ability to beat the NZ or Ozzies I hope I see a team play with no fear who are prepared to give it a go.

Hope Lynch gets a call up now Morley is ruled out.

And no salary cap

It was a decent run out, our left edge looked a bit dodgy though. Going forward we look okay and the forwards will match anything thrown at them but the backs are a worry. Aus have a lot of top backs missing but are still much better than ours.

I think it may be a different case unfortunately when we face the big boys IMO Tom Briscoe is the only outside back we have who could potentially cause problems for the aussies and kiwis.

Wonder if Macca will fly anyone else out maybe Lynch, Carvell?

Carvells going out