Greg Inlis = ill
Sam Tomkins = does it at least once every big game. At international level that means starting with a 6 point handicap, which we can ill afford.

James Graham is our best player by a country mile.

I'd start with Sam Tomkins on the bench. Use him as an impact / broken play runner when the big guys are tiring. Joel Tomkins should be nowhere near the 17 in my opinion. In the past we have had a glut of back rowers but its one of our weakest areas at present. Not sure why that is.

Persicution Complex in full bloom!

I'm always amazed how much time England fans spend talking down their own team and talking up the opposition.

If you're generally scared or worried by this Australian side, I can't see why. As weak an Australian side - particularly in the forwards as I can ever remember seeing.

I thought the forwards were fine today - good, in fact, and I'm optimistic about them clashing with the Aussies. As ever, our weakness was in the back 7. The threequarters offered little threat, but to be fair to them, they didn't get great service from the halfbacks.

I do think O'Loughlin needs to come in, almost certainly for Farrell or Joel Tomkins. But the key change for me would be to bring in Hardaker somewhere, as he is a genuinely potent attacking threat. Based on today, I'd swap him in for Shenton, but I can also see the argument of him starting at fullback with Sam Tomkins on the bench.

Lot of negativity here, first of all think it should be considered that this was England's first game in a year. Our world cup campaign started off with a loss in a friendly to Italy. This time we looked off the pace and still saw off a pretty strong Samoa team. Some of the guys that played today haven't played in over a month now so I'd say some rust is to be expected.

Don't think many changes need to be made, other than Westerman (who was solid) for O'loughlin. We were caught in a good arm wrestle with a powerful Samoan pack and the momentum was constantly shifting. They were kicking on the front foot quite a bit which did Tomkins no favours with those bombs. Think it's a huge overreaction to call for him to be dropped or moved after that game imo. Our forwards need to step up against a fairly vulnerable looking Australian pack and set a platform. When the kiwis went route 1 today it looked very effective. We should take some encouragement from that.

I concur with Vossy, if we can step up a gear from today, which every player in that team is capable of doing, we can turn Australia over next week. Personally I think this is shaping up to be one of the best 4 nations. Australia look vulnerable and Samoa look less likely to be swept aside than any other team outside the big 3 in any of these tournaments so far.

Rusty from England but thats to be expected first game up, goes without saying we need to improve for next week but we def can... Aussies up next who look in disarray!

like to see o'loughlin and whitehead come in for ferres and westerman next week.

what was with the BBC commentary today!!! it was ahead of the actual game by a few seconds..very frustrating

The BBC had received intelligence from Australian police that a skinny Samoan woman with very large breasts was going to climb the fence and streak naked across the field just as Sam Tomkins was trying to catch a high kick.



The BBC did not want any of the British and Samoan establishments, especially the Samoan Royal Family and Ed Miliband, to see this, and thus the video transmission was shown on delay. However it turns out that the Queensland police were able to intercept the woman before she got to the fence, and she was placed in protective custody.

At the end of the day if we beat Oz we get to the final and they go out. If we lose then in reality it'll be NZ v Oz. So it rides on next week. I still hold out hope for a Samoa v England final as I think Samoa may spring a surprise next week!

Sam Tomkins could face a video review for a leg-twist on Simona in the 53rd minute

DCE looks like he's out of the Tournement with Brisbanes Ben Hunt set to replace him at stand off

The only change I would make would be to bring O'Loughlin in for Westerman.

I think people do a disservice to Leilua who is an excellent player when commenting on Shenton's defence.

I felt Shenton did pretty well to mostly contain the most dangerous centre on display today, including the centre I think is the world's best in Whare.

This. I cannot understand why the outstanding back rower of the Super League season by a country mile isn't in the 17. We need Elliott Whitehead's attacking threat outwide. Thought Ferres, Westerman and Joel Tomkins created no attacking threat so any two of them three need to be replaced by O'Loughlin (who has real aggression and leadership qualities) plus Whitehead who knows where the tryline is.

England's pack was dominated there today. The back row in particular is really weak. I would drop both the second rowers and bring in Whitehead and O'Loughlin.

England made a huge number if individual errors across the park and put themselves under a lot of pressure. The only player i saw that didn't do a great deal of positive stuff was westerman. Everyone else made some good stuff even though they may have made a mistake.

Swap SoL with Westerman and you get a huge uplift in contribution in both attack and defence.

That's all that's needed. Ideally Hardaker had been playing centre for two seasons but he hasn't so you can't justify picking him as centre.

I suppose it wouldn't help that McNamara played Ferres on the right when he plays for Huddersfield on the left. Can't suddenly switch sides of the field like that and be as effective especially at international level.

Elliot Whitehead is a necessity for England. Does Steven McNamara understand that?

Paranoid much? I'm sure if he was still at Saints you'd be just as vigorous in your defence.


FWIW I think he should keep his place.

Elliot Whitehead is our only saviour. He can win us the game vs Australia on his own.

England had a few fixable problems - dreadful ball control and really poor line speed being the top two. If they play that way against either Oz or NZ they'll get hammered. One is an individual issue, the other a team one which was also a problem at the WC. Hopefully the weakness up the middle on the line was down to new combinations - otherwise they'll ship a shedload of points.

In terms of personnel, both second rows looked ordinary to me, Shenton I think really struggles with the physicality, as does Charnley. It might be a big call but assuming SOL comes in I'd consider Hardaker + Burgess on the left and Whitehead for one of the other second rows.

Smith did better than expected but he HAS to run occasionally or he'll be completely anonymous, apart from his kicking which was very good.

The elephant in the room is Tomkins. He did well at covering grubbers, did as well as expected in tackling (very good takedown of a rampaging Pritchard) but you cannot ignore his problem with the high ball, most of which he doesn't even try to catch. Samoa didn't even pepper him - against Australia and NZ he'll be facing those kicks all day, and you'd expect him to completely miss at least two a game.

England are far too error-prone in general to have much hope against Australia. If they vastly improve in that area and manage not to gift tries through schoolboy defensive errors then they have the ability to run Australia close. Sadly I expect we'll be lamenting early errors causing us to be 12+ behind within a few minutes.

S. Tomkins seems to have lost an awful lot of pace, to be honest I don't think he warrants his place in the team.
Leaving that bomb to bounce just inside the dead ball line was a huge error in judgement, it would have being easier to have a foot over the whitewash and just catch the fecker, to me it shows he isn't (& never has been) a full-back in a month of Sundays. Get Hardaker in there or we'll get mullered.
Ferres should be dropped for Whitehead and whilst Westerman was clearly used as stopper down the middle (33 tackles in about 40 minutes game time) his talents were wasted despite getting his nose through the line a few times. Still, he should be in above Tomkins J even if if SoL comes back in.

I said right from the start of Sam's international career that he'll NEVER make an international full back and I stick to it. Seems like more people are now seeing this. It's not just his work under the high ball, he doesn't get go in hard on the head on tackle. That try under the posts - a full back like Burke, Mumby, even Hampson would have stopped it. He has pace and skill which I always felt would be best used at stand off. I'm beginning to think maybe centre or more realistically coming off the bench. If Hardaker had held the FB spot over the last couple of years (which there is no doubt in my mind he should have) he'd be performing solidly there now. My worry is the coaches panic and bring Hardaker in for a big game and he makes a big one-off mistake. The idea of picking Sam seems to me purely for coming into the attacking line. That is just one facet of FB play and in my mind a simple one - pretty easy to create the extra man if you've got a reasonable level of pace. From what I've seen Hardaker is strong in attack too anyway.

thought sam tomkins had a decent game, some great defence from him, saving a few tries and diffusing kicks, ok he let the ball bounce for a high bomb but we got away with it this time and he made up for it with his try