I felt this time it would be unfair to single out any player(s) for a poor performance. Bottom line was just the Aussies are better. It's not that our lads cocked up - I think they played as well as they could. It's just that the Aussies, particularly 1-7, are man on man better than our lads - more athletic, faster, more balanced, bigger, faster of thought.

Those Aussies out there are drawn from the best natural athletes their nation produces. Ours are drawn from the decent lads who don't play football from along the M62 corridor. The England RL team which could beat the Aussies is probably playing lower league soccer this weekend, and I struggle to see how we change that.

Just returned from watching that shi@@e. We have just 2 international standard players - Graham and Hall. McGilvarry on this series performance makes it 3. On past glories SB would be but not this time. Where do you start - a left centre who can't catch and a guy who can't find touch from his hands with a penalty and then doesn't learn from his mistake but does the same thing again from just about the same position! At that stage we were in the game on the scoreboard and should have had an attacking set of 6. Instead we turned it over and they scored shortly after.
As to coaching and attitude - it was all wrong in this tournament. England have built up this delusion that they are as good as Australia. In fact they are further behind than ever. Playing a conservative style rather than getting into them doesn't work when you are so far second best. To lose against NZ was abyssmal because they have been shambolic in this tournament.

The only good thing to have come out of it is that we avoided the embarrassment of going to Anfield and getting 60 put on us when Australia are playing for real. This was a dead match for Oz who looked like they had sunk a few beers last night but still strolled it in the end. One passage of play in the second half looked like an unopposed training session when Oz moved it left and nearly scored.

What have we learned from this series - nothing.

Wasn't Widdop the 2nd time, it was Hodgson.
That probably makes things even worse, that 2 players could make such a ridiculous error... 2 super duper NRL players at that.

You just knew it was all over when we took the early 2 points. What a joke. First time we'd got into an attacking position and went for goal - they like to talk about building pressure and patience but when push comes to shove all they are concerned about is taking an easy penalty so they don't get nilled. Either that or the self-delusion and delusions of grandeur have got so bad they need a psychiatrist to help the coach and captain.

This is my assessment of Bennett after the opening match against NZ and I've seen nothing to suggest I need change anything!

Quote
Bennett - I'm a Wayne Bennett admirer but I thought his whole approach from the moment he got appointed was wrong and betrayed a lack of knowledge and belief in the players available in this country. His game plan, if there was one, was too simplistic, he failed to recognise the right time to bring on Clarke who S hould have been introduced after 20 minutes when we had forced the Kiwis into all out defence for a sustained period.
Having both of the Burgess twins on the bench/field at the same time was a glaringly obvious error and I said so as soon as I saw the team. As soon as they were introduced the Kiwis took advantage of their lack of mobility and took them on with players who have power and footwork in Taumololo and Ta'Pau. The switch in momentum 25 minutes into the game was as much down to this than anything else. He seemed to have stifled any kind of interplay between the forwards which removed much of our attacking threat through a Graham, Hill and S Burgess and also allowed the Kiwis to defend in numbers on each of our ball carriers therefore nullifying another of our assets, size!
Our kicking game was poor and we played too narrow'"

.

Perhaps the worst thing was the absence of interplay between the forwards which completely isolated our middles and allowed Australia to dominate them.

Yes, immensely. Has he not annoyed you for the last decade + ?



In reality he might be, that won't stop him trolling these boards for the next few months and then starting again when the world cup begins.

What did you think when the Aussies took the 2 points, twice ?

We won't beat them by playing the game their way, that's for sure.

Reduce the level of over-protection the modern player enjoys - and reduce the number of subs

Play the f****rs at Millwall, Workington, wherever - just remove them from their comfort zone and make sure the pitch is narrow and the in-goal short

Play them in January

Put the refs and touchies in front of a hostile crowd

Wane as coach

I'd pay to see that and probably enjoy it even if we lost. The current fare is simply rubbish.

Thanks for clarifying - I just assumed it was the same player. As you say, still ridiculous though,

Why not when you know you'll run out winners anyhow?

"This side without the Burgii, Graham and Hodgeson is not doing better. "

Burgenses

Were do we do from here?

I think only the wingers, Lomax and Williams from the backs came out with any credit, some of the big name players in the pack like Hodgson and Sam Burgess disappointed.

Think the pack is ok, plenty of depth, need better centres or at least the current ones to improve as not much else out there and find a partner for Williams

Easy mistake to make when you're sat half a mile away in that awful stadium.
I had the advantage of seeing it in close up on TV

Not sure I agree with all of that but certainly do with the sentiment. What winds me up is for the last few years when we slip, say, 8 points behind and the game is starting to slip away but we are still just in it we play the same way rather than mixing it up and causing a fight. On the rare occasions we have had Oz on the back foot they have always done that to break the momentum. We play like idiots and unsurpringly end up with the same result each time. Sad thing is we're falling back not progressing.

With the 2nd one with Hodgson I think at least he was taking into account their was only about 50 secs left of the half so was trying to deliberately go for extra yardage on his kick because they would only have 2/3 tackles before the hooter. The first one from Widdop was just dreadfully unnecessary.

All the more reason to play safe. Take the ball in 5 times and put a good kick in.

Back from a thoroughly depressing game.

We created chances and spilled the ball 4 times when almost over the line or down the wing during breaks.

Missed touch with two pen kicks- awful.

Missed tackles we should have made in the centre channels.

We did lots right but made far too many mistakes yet again.

The reasons WB was brought in: smarter plays, better game management, better discipline. We appear to have gone backwards.

The big thing I was disappointed with from the start was line speed and aggression. Far too slow closing down them in defence, almost zero speed when taking the ball up in attack. The absolute basics we should be doing to use our strength in the forwards.

All this great work in training- none of it visible.

I really think Shaun Wane would have had them ripping in to the aussies in defence and attack.

I see for the 20th year in a row our pack was just as good as theirs

The truth is, Australia's 4th choice pack would be as good as ours

Regards

King James

Yes. Totally agree. The pattern us we have a couple of big guys who do some good work early on. The supposedly inferior Aussie forward just keep coming in relentlessly for 80 minutes and by about 60 minutes are in total and utter control.

Then after the players have a good old laugh with there Aussie mates,,
Simply not good enough,,crying like school girls instead of getting in to them in first half,,,Watkins looked like he was apologising to the Aussie kicker he took out late after he had a go at him.
Then when the game is up we want to play tough guys.

NZ have beaten Aus by playing off the cuff RL with a lot of offloading.
We actually seemed to have the edge on the Aussies out wide, Dugan can't defend at centre and GI kept overcompensating for holmes and leaving gaps.
At the same time our pack was well beaten.
Why we attacked the edges LESS in the second half is a complete joke.

Also we will never win any test match defending our line like we did in the last 30. I mean not numbering up on a scrum?! you would have a go at an under 12s team for that.

Just on the Wayne Bennett front - those who were expecting better tactics, set plays, game management etc, are barking up the wrong tree - that's not his strong point. His greatest strength is his man management - he's always surrounded himself with various assistants who cover the game plan/tactics, fitness, technique etc - he's the calming influence, the words of wisdom, the motivator to 'be the best you can'.

For motivation I'd have Wane any day of the week.

I did cringe at that. Keith Senior would have dropped Cronk for giving him that much spray.

I think personally I'd have gone Williams and Gale and given them all three games. While I get the point your making I think you've got to bear in mind Bennett gets more than just games to asses the players on.

I think the fact he had Williams only on the bench suggested two things to me. He doesn't trust him or know him, so likely went for Bett's pick in Brown, and after 4 weeks of camp and games he was no closer to working out his best pairing.