Wigan fans will agree now is the time to go. I’d like to think he would be fit to go out with a game at Elland Road but it’s unlikeky. He’s been fantastic for England and GB for over a decade. It took him a while to win the majority around even though his form was always very good.

His body just sadly isn’t up to it anymore. He was way off in the semi against Cas and the Grand Final this year and looked injured in those so he should’ve sat this series out to start with. That’s the thing with Lockers though, he’s a leader and whilst other players were pulling out, he will try and push himself through these games but enough is enough. It’s now effecting the team because he’s not completing games and you can’t afford that at international level.

Agreed, been a great player but needs to make the call now and give others a chance to stake a claim for the WC.

It's all tactics. Leeds will now have to pay even more when they announce the signing.

Fancy NZ by 12 and on to the decider the week after.

I was watching the London centric BBC News tonight and they were going on about the rugby internationals this weekend. Of course what they meant was the RU internationals. The same occurred just before a Question of Sport, when they summarised sport on the BBC this weekend..again no mention of RL. Thankfully the local news got the balance right, with mentions of both RL and RU.

Do we have to do this over and over again?
Ireland v Italy and USA v Maori All Blacks double header in the USA will get more in attendance than the #2 & #3 RL sides...... England v SA at Twickenham will get 3 times the crowd....... It is not the BBC who are to blame FFS...... 58,000 fans each week attend SL games...... The fact that 33,000 won't bother this weekend isn't aunties fault...... Look inward to discover the problem......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Rugb ... _World_Cup It is interesting to see how long the international formats have been tampered with and we wonder why there are low turn outs. For a world cup final, is 1975 the lowest ever attendance?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Rugb ... _World_Cup It is interesting to see how long the international formats have been tampered with and we wonder why there are low turn outs. For a world cup final, is 1975 the lowest ever attendance?

Absolutely. We’re only now cottoning on to the fact it needs to be a regular cycle and a standard format. The messing around and inconsistency with the World Cup has had a massive negative impact on the sport in my opinion.

Are we cottoning onto this? Yes the World Cup has gone into 4 year cycles, but the Four Nations Tournament, which was growing year on year, has been scrapped. In its place a half full KCOM and Anfield for a Kiwis test series and a return of Great Britain.

Without thinking about it too much:

Have a world cup every 4 years
Have a 4 nations every 4 years, so it falls 2 years after the world cup. Similar to how the World cup and the Euros are scheduled in football.
Have a GB tour at the end of the season every 4 years to either NZ or Aus to play a 3 match series.
Have NZ or Aus tour England every 4 years.

In the year Aus and NZ don't travel to England, have them play end of season tests against teams like Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.

Something like that doesn't strike me as too unreasonable, and wouldn't really increase the physical workload on the players.

Its a good starting point i like it and as long as you stay with the World cup and 4 nations on that rota as set in stone then you can tweak other internationals round it. RU has had this sussed for years with the autumn internationals over here, 6 nations in the new year and WC every 4 years with the lions tours slotting in. Unbelievable how it's taken us this long to fix a schedule but even now it's a way off.

Scrappy stop start game for the first half of the 1st half but starting to come alive nicely.

Both centres have struggled this week and Lomax is non existent. Think the 2 sub props in Hill and George Burgess did really well to help us back in it and Makinson been great and fully earning his selection, 2 great try savers.

Yep I agree. Then you’ve got a set schedule and can plan and sell tickets well in advance. I’d also have a mid-season home 5 Nations. 1 game vs each nation league, no final. Then the home nations have a guaranteed schedule every year too.

Hodgson's distribution is far too pedestrian for this level.

Awesome try there for England, but what do NZ have to do to get a player sin binned?

Typical whenever we get an NRL ref.

Honestly he was bang average in world cup also. Don't think he has ever impressed playing for England. Literally in the side on the basis that he is playing in the NRL.

Great pass from Connor!

Been two cracking passes to set England's tries up, that Connor one was awesome though.

We looked a bit aimless before that, too much side to side running but when we actually get through our sets properly and set plays up and execute them we score.

think we've also missed Sam a bit especially in the go forward stakes, we're not making the meters of the NZ forwards generally.

Agreed. My opinion doesn't match that of some of the world's top coaches who obviously know a hell of a lot more than me, but I always think he looks better elsewhere on the field rather than hooker. Such as when he would move into second row for KR or like today when Clarke came on and he went to 13 (I think?).

LOL every angle someone gets in the way there.

Well worked try that, you could see NZ slowing down a bit and getting back into their defensive places.

Man, that looked for all money it was going over.

Kicks haven't been easy all from the side line but it's not been a good day with the boot for Jake. Even from touch he was banging them over for fun this season.

Nah they haven't but you'd generally expect him to land one or two, his best strike of the ball was the one that hit the post.

both teams have had times of being on top and then making errors. Seems that NZ has bossed at the start of each half, then England has gradually worn them down, hopefully they can carry this pressure on to win.

FFS the attempt to milk a penalty there by Hill and Hodgson was embarrassing and exactly what this sport doesn't need.

what a crap kick that was by Williams.

followed up by a cracking try by Makinson.