Whilst I wouldn't have picked Heighinton, he was solid enough in the grand schemes of the game i can't see what differences Taylor would've made.

Yawn. Sick to death of English fans using that as an excuse.
Anyway, if you had a "[ineutral[/i" ref - one who wasn't concerned about the look of the thing - you would have been playing with 12 from the 9th minute. Calling the ref "you f***ing cheating c***" is a send off every day of the year. Sutton [imight[/i have missed a high tackle on Widdop (although I thought it came up off the shoulder), but he took the cowards way out by not marching the ear-biting serial bully Graham.

One thing nobody else seems to have mentioned is our decision not to take the 2 points when they were offered. I know field position is a paramount, but we weren't struggling for yards, and it would have perhaps settled some of the nerves, especially when we had the ball in an attacking position

I heard that but couldn't see who that was directed too. Could've easily been said to an Aussie player.

Gutted but happy with the effort. On the plus side Cronk, Slater & Smith won't be there next time round, they will find someone but will be pushed to find as good. To me the Ausie spine had all the advantages with a couple of hundred games playing in the same side. I just wish we had centre in Batemans place (he would be great at 11 or 12 not out there I felt for Hall as he got no service at all. Taylor would have been a better change player than Highington as well. But happy with the effort if not the score line. How we missed our captain.

He was looking straight at Sutton when he said it.

Edit: sorry, wasn't Sutton it was the touchie.

Wouldn't surprise me if it was aimed at Slater. They've got history and seemed to have a little run in later in the game.

We were equally as brilliant and frustrating.

Absolutely gutted!

Not clinical enough despite being seemingly fitter, more attractive and expansive than Aus.

If Zak Hardaker hadn’t been such a tool, Widdop could have played stand off and got this hands on the ball more. Saying that, had Thurston played it could have been 12-18 points instead of 6.

[*
As Great Britain coach?

I'm as gutted about the result as anyone, but our expectations of the squad need to be relative . Would any of our 17 get in the Aus squad, Jerry at a push maybe? Therefore credit to the team for their endeavour, but while ever our game is a third class sport in this country, and SL is as dire as the last 2 seasons, we'll always be rank underdogs who'll win 1-2 games out of 10 against the best and I'm sure that'll happen in the coming years through sheer weight of odds rather than depth of quality. All things being equal, Aus should be disappointed at not winning far more convincingly.

Had Aus come up with an uncharacteristic howler and England scraped a win it wouldn't have changed the fact that the infrastructure needs massive improvements for us to sustain a challenge at the very top (however nice the feeling would have been)

Graham and Burgess would.

Lack of vision by Jerry on that last play - kick inside and we score. That said, I think they'd blown for the huge forward pass by Widdop!

no we wouldn't as the touchie had already called it forward near the halfway line, and it was by lots.

It's a good job the ref got the decision correct last weekend because Australia would have blown Tonga apart by 40 and it'd be another anti-climax. As it is it ended on a high, not quite the high we wanted but still better, actually much better than most of us could have predicted.

I'm just annoyed some players didn't turn up for the final or simply just didn't perform and that the tactics in attack were utterly devoid, looking forward I hope we can fill the left centre spot and a pair of halves that are better than what we had as they were disappointing throughout the tournament, Gale improved his kicking for the first half but showed that when it comes to the big game he's simply not up to standard. Walmsley was superb, Hill stepped up after being well off the mark previously but we need to be looking at blooding the next generation of forwards as JG, Hill, SoL aren't going to be around for 2021.
From Hull I think Taylor deserved a go in front of Heighington today and would have come on much earlier, I also think Liam Watts should get a go, good hands, decent pace and not afraid to mingle it.

In defence a few lapses aside we were awesome, Aaron Bowyer of the Guardian described the final as SOO level, IMHO it was more than that, just gutted that we didn't perform in too many facets that ultimately cost us

Gutted!!

Too many times we when we had the ball in their half and dropped it on the first tackle.

Gale long kicking game was excellent. Brown didn’t offer much.

I think if O’Loughlin was playing and STomkins played 6 instead of brown we could have done it.

Oh and a proper centre on the left.

Gutted for Graham and Roby in particular. Played there heart out.

6 and 7 just not up to it im afraid and Widdop made some poor decisions too. Sooner some of out half-backs got to the NRL, the better.

Ain't that what I said?

Great game that.looking at the match stats there wasn't a fag paper between the sides apart from we had double the errors, which sums up why we fall short, but we went toe to toe with the best for the full 80 and with a bit more luck could have nicked it.

What an improvement that is on 2008 when we capitulated at every turn.we can hold our heads up high and look forward to the kiwi series with real hope and optimism now.The Aussies without the Queensland conection will be there for the taking in the Ashes series in 2019, bring it on.

A bit of me would quite like to see England play QL and NSW separately - invite them over for tours. When we've beaten them, the Aussies can shut up about that as the pinnacle of the game.

Whilst that is a bit contradictory (you criticise Widdop and then say our halves need to play in the NRL to improve, even though Widdop has come through the NRL system) I am mostly in agreement.
The NRL is certainly a competition where halves get much less time to make decisions and as such, the likes of Thurston, Cronk, Morgan et al have much more experience playing in intense game (even more so when they have experienced many origin games).
Our players lack that experience and it showed in some of the decisions they made today, which I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have made given the extra thinking time they get in Super League (I’ve never seen Gale kick on the second tackle for a Castleford, particularly when chasing points).
However, and here’s the conundrum, playing in big games is a massive learning curve. It would seem rather daft now Gale has built this, to kick him into touch (metaphorically) and replace him with someone with no big game international experience who will need to go through the same learning curve! He’s young enough to be available for the next World Cup, so building on his experience so far seems more sensible than replacing him with someone who hasn’t been as good domestically and doesn’t have the international experience. However, that’s not to say he should be an automatic pick if some young half back explodes into the scene in the next four years, or if Gale’s domestic form goes out of the window (though that didn’t seem to matter for Kevin Brown!).
Of course, we all hope that there are some teenagers waiting to become the next World-class English half and by the next World Cup we have a 21 year old Englishman ripping NRL defences fo shreds. But unless that happens we are better to take advantage of the experience our players have built through this tournament and the next three years to bring home the trophy in 2021 (or whenever it is).

It was an outstanding effort, it truly was. We went into their own backyard and took them the distance. Ultimately, we can't ask any more.

We need to not be too disheartened, execution in the final third let us down, but if we keep putting ourselves in these games that will come.

Eh? Widdop was head and shoulders our best player today. Was a utterly stupid thing to say

Regards

King James

Good at FB, very poor at Stand Off. Too stuttering, slow and predictable. He will never in a million years make a decent international stand off.

With all due respect, I completely disagree. Graham, Whitehead and Hill were better than Widdop. Watch it back. Whitehead came up with another couple of try savers at vital times. Widdop made a couple of wrong options in attack, dropped the ball etc.

Widdop also played full back last time i checked. My point about 6 and 7 was aimed at Brown and Gale. Just not up to it i'm afraid.

A gutsy performance, but we lost. Put Edwards and Gregory in at 6 & 7 in their prime and they'd have torn the aussies apart.