I agree. Have been impressed with hodgson during his spell with raiders but i dont think he is a better option for this team over Roby right now.

Besides his slow distribution he just doesn't provide enough variation with the ball, maybe in the NRL he's got more skilful half backs to move the ball on along the attacking line for him. Roby, plays with his head up and will see whats in front of him much quicker, 2 or 3 plays in every set he will draw defenders to him before releasing the ball, most of the time its a quick ball and he does the occasional scoot when he sees the backs of defenders.

Blimy I am glad we won after reading all the comments on hear I thought we lost the game it was the team we played against that tried their best to spoil it and the bloody useless REF was to blame if he had been refin a aussie match they would have shot him by now

Graham and hill aren't at the level they were 4 years ago. Lacking some aggression and go forward in the middle

Graham is a top player. Everyone can see our problems lie in the half backs and centres.

Great approach to the game. As heavy favourites some would of expected us to force plays and become lazy in defence and treat the opposition disrespectfuly. Glad to see that wasn't the case.

Nobody stood out. Our best players are wasted on the edges. Hall and Mcgillvary didn't see enough ball and often left standing. Watkins played better than I've seen in awhile?, though holds the ball too long at times. Bateman looked good at centre but is wasted there.

Half backs seemed to lack any energy. Ratchford was the biggest dissapointment for me.
Thought our forwards were okay, not great.

No problem with Hodgson. Thought he did the job that was expected.

Bennett's tone in the post match interview pretty much summed up the entertainment that was served.

Roby needs to play. Hodgson is just too one dimensional

Regards

King James

Hodgson is easily one of your best players, unfortunately he's just progressed too far beyond the rest of your spine & the rest of them are bamboozled by his superior knowledge & foresight, Bennett knows this & i'm sure he's trying to fast track the rest of your "super" league players to somewhere near his level, its obviously the same reason he will stick with Heighington, he knows how to beat Melbourne so he knows how to beat Australia, he's not scared or overawed by the experience

You missed Hodgson’s poor handling skills, limited ideas and predictability from his assets.

With that performance England will struggle to score points against France.

you sir are a joke

We've gone backwards under Bennet. We were at our best under mcbanana down under in 2014.

Bennett is RLs answer to Capello, not interested and in the wrong job. He's killing the England team playing boring Aussie style RL.
I'd rather lose playing our way than lose like this, Bennett is nothing more than the emperors tailor and the sooner he's sent packing the better. His post match interviews are contemptful and will have people switching off.

Only England supporters could be gifted one of the greatest footy brains in the history of the game & then whinge when he's too good, perhaps he should dumb down things?

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I made the same comparison with Capello to some people yesterday, neither actually seemed to like or be interested in the English game. No doubt Bennett is a great coach but sometimes even the best coaches aren't the right fit for certain jobs.

Let's wait and see how we do in the rest of the tournament. I watched the pre-tournament interview with Bennett and I liked him. Not every manager needs to laugh and joke all the time. You don't achieve what he has achieved without having talent and determination. He cares, as did Capello, but you can't turn us into world beaters in a couple of years. These are long term problems of not being quite good enough, both in RL and especially in football. His methods have worked with numerous other teams, so at the very least it's good for England players to be exposed to something that has been proven successful elsewhere. It might open their eyes to a different way of doing things and give them a different experience.

Don't care about his interview technique personally but media savvy IS important in this day and age.

What I do care about is his lack of being able to identify the problems we have and his lack of judgement with respect to players who are simply not cutting it. Heighington and Hill are way short, why Taylor hasn't had a go I can't understand. Not playing a proper centre which is stunting our attack, no back up specialist winger, not giving McMeeken a go when the Lebanon game was an ideal time to pick him in place of Heighington.

Even things like the Watts exclusion which for me is baffling, a ball handling forward who IMHO is the equal to James Graham, what was the reason for Tomkins not being selected ahead of Ratchford and Lomax given we lost our first pick FB?
It just seems to me we aren't getting full value from what is available and yet the coach is sticking to his guns and that isn't working ... still!

All valid points some of his selections have been baffling, the Watts one is the only one I kind of get, penalties kill us and he gives away too many. Tomkins or Shaul should've been shoe ins once Hardaker self destructed.
We are playing into the hand of the Aussies by playing them at their own game. Surely taking a leaf out of Cas's book would be the way forward, get it wide and make them have to think a bit.

It's not as simple as hey let's throw the ball around, I get so sick of reading that on here. You need to earn the right, otherwise all that happens against australia is errors which are punished. All too often against australia we don't do the basics well enough, to be able to play any expansive rugby.

Does anyone know where the quarter final matches are to be played? If PNG can cut the errors out I reckon they could push England close.

I think not taking Tomkins could prove to be the most telling mistake he's made. It was interesting to hear the pundits on the BBC highlighting the positional weakness of Ratchford in the Lebanon game. That's the sort if thing Tomkins does instinctively. He would also solve the lack of creativity down the left hand side by acting as the extra pivot. Something neither of the incumbents has shown themselves to be particularly good at. Don't understand the thinking behind this non selection at all once Hardacre self destructed again.

Said the same after last game and after today's performance it just reinforced it even more. I'd be also tempted to get Mike McMeeken instead of Whitehead. I think he offers a better attacking threat for sure. We've had a couple of games now and it's time those that haven't impressed, or guys we havent given a crack to get some game time.

As others have said, we should play a style that we are comfortable with. I would play Williams instead of Gale, Roby do the 80 mins, McMeeken in the team, Taylor instead of Hill.

Think we missed a chance to look at some of the other players in the squad here.