Graham was great today but he would have been no good in game 1 as he couldn't stay out of the boozer for the week

Then again part of me wants to watch it again.

Maybe the outcome will be different if I watch it again. Especially if I turn it off with 20 seconds to go.

England's last set in possession needed 5 drives and a kick to the corner and a great chase, somehow Widdop ended up under pressure and put up a mid-field bomb that landed just past the halfway line. A good kick there and the game was dead.
Hall hangs on , game is dead.
SBW is simply tackled - no high shot, game is dead.
Sinfield makes the tackle - game is dead.

Nothing went for us in the last 2 minutes. Any one of those things goes right and we win.

Ask yourself this would Ol' Dollar Bill gone down like that if he was 5 metres from the line?

Exactly. We have no real shortage of players that a teammate can look in the eyes during the game when they need someone to stand up and do something. I'm unsure if we really have seen the player who steps in as leader on and off the field.

I'm afraid the World Cup is now Australia's, the effort New Zealand and England put in for that game, that was worthy of a final alone. I worry about the final next week. The amount of effort was extraordinary, and I'm afraid that not much would be left in the tank after that performance.

Posts like this really annoy me. All the other plays you mentioned would have resulted in a completely different restart and every subsequent play would have been different.

Thus we will never know....

Did England use all their interchanges? I understand that Ablett didn't get a run but was surprised he was in the 17 ahead of Mclourum to be honest who could have help tighten up the ruck area in Roby's absence.

Great game but so heart braking don't think I'll ever want to watch it again! Wonder why we didn't go with Widdop from day one he was very direct and had a good game against world class opposition.

Who do we want to win the World Cup now England have been knocked out?

Yeah it was all Sinfield's fault. Idiot

Fiji

Thought Sam spoke well after the game, he could be the guy. If he wants to take that part on then nobody is going to argue with him off the pitch that's for sure. Is he ready? Don't know.

Thought Ablett might have sharpened up our left sided attack. Cudjoe and Hall had no space to work in, Ablett is a better ball handler than Ferres, baffled that he didn't get on. Another hooker would have probaly been a waste, Burrow did a job and gave Roby enough rest.

Perhaps so. They'll be a few should be looking to take greater leadership roles in their clubs next year.

That's actually cheered me up.

Unlikely at 22.0 down already 25 mins in.

That NZ miracle pass bounced forward when it hit the ground doesn't that count as a forward pass?

Problem with either him or Graham is that they're Australia based so its a question of do you want your captain to be someone who is in England for all the training camps, the mid season games and media stuff.

No the ball went backwards in the first instance.

Burrow made a few decent metres again,him and roby where the best options I though like you said, many different factors.

Sinfield should have kicked that conversion but who is to say kiwis wouldn't have scored 2 quick tries after that? handling errors could have gone either way on some occasions SBW was done for a knock on that never was and didnt england score not long after that, any thing changes the tide of the game.

It was a great game worthy of a final just the kiwis had more composure when it mattered, mcnamara made some good choices apart from taking a man and not playing him widdop for chase was a good idea and not playing mcillorum was another both of who would have been wound up and could have cost us more.

Plenty of positives from that game and when the WC comes around again who knows we could be the favourites.

No, but the pass was very very lucky. Could have bounced out (nearly did) could have bounce back on itself. Could have been a fumble on the floor. It was the run from the winger chasing down a nothing ball that was the miracle not the pass.

Lucky sods

Thought Burrow was ineffective and NZ got a roll on it only changed back when Graham and Roby came back on.// Truck and trail.....
I appreciate you'll disagree as a Leeds supporter but Ablett is not international standard IMO and has not really given any indication otherwise during the world cup but think when you have 17 you should use all those in front of you even if to help stiffen the defensive line in the closing stages.

NZ were making alot of easy yardage especially in the last 20 mins of the game. Proud of the team effort though it would have been nice for those down under to get a surprise and lose their crown. Instead its more of the same old final which was predictable from the start NZ v AUS.

Graham and Roby had to come on when they did. We were getting no where in that second half. Ideally they probably should have stayed off for 5 - 10 more minutes. But it was backs to the wall time. Which is why we needed them back. Ablett probably would have got a run if we had not been hammered on our own line at that point.

That's ur Blood pressure Son I should Know.

Only negative for me was kicking game thought it was very average the penalty looked like a tired attempt and sinfield running out is a split second thing. our pack is best English pack I have seen only one not to sure about is ferres

Posted this on another thread, but it be better posting it here.

I still think the 1 per that cost us. Did we maybe try hang on to our lead rather than going for the kill? If we look at the last set of 6, Sinfield went for a kick down the middle rather than touch, it was an ok kick but NZ still started their set of 6 on the 30m line (i think). Should have been banged into touch, even to eat a few seconds up. George Burgess high tackle. Then the missed tackle. If we did one of them 3 things right or better, we would have won. There not the reason we lost the semi, there were many incidents throughout the whole 80 that can be picked. I'm just using them as an example of possibly why we fall short at the highest level.

I thought England were outstanding today, one of the most enjoyable games of rugby i've ever seen. But if we want to move forward from this, we have to look at the small 1 per. I believe we are as fast, strong and skillful as OZ/NZ, we just fall short on the little things. New Zealand have worked on theirs, and look at them now.

You may be right about Ferres. Should have been Danny Kirmond in the second row alongside Westwood