Timothy Simona may have been injury prone playing as a centre, but he is not playing centre in this tournament, and he is not injured now! He is a dynamic player. If he breaks the line nobody in the England team will catch him.

Benjamin Roberts is not poor. He was probably offered more by Castleford than any NRL club could equal. He won man of the match in one of Melbourne's more recent games.

Roberts is crap.

Kyle Stanley is average at best.

Simona is an average centre. Kevin Penny is one of the fastest players in SL, doesn't mean he'd be a dangerous full back. As somebody asked earlier in the thread, do you actually watch NRL games or just highlight reels?

Samoa will stick with England for a little while before eventually falling behind. If England's forwards get on top early then Samoa will be in real trouble, I don't seem them scoring more than 2 or 3 tries with England hitting 30+.

If the nurse will let you switch on the TV early Saturday morning, then try to watch the game.

I've watched every single NRL game this year. How much have you watched?

I'll also be in London doing some work with the Broncos on Friday and Saturday so I guess I'll just have to get the nurse to press record eh?

I watched 4-6 NRL games every week. I made a point of watching every Roosters, and Warriors, and almost every Rabbitohs and Storm game each week.

This match on Saturday will prove who is correct.

Let's have a prediction competition for a bit of fun, furthest score away donates £10 to the Steve Prescott Foundation?

How does that work? Furthest away in score gap or furthest away in total points?

For example if one predicts England 30-20 Samoa and the other predicts England 24-20 Samoa, and the final score is England 16-6 Samoa, which prediction is the loser?

Do they televise the National Rugby League Premiership en France?

Think the fairest way is difference between predicted and actual for each team. For instance:

Actual Score - England 36 - 18 Samoa

Prediction 1 - England 30 - 10 Samoa

Prediction 2 - England 18 - 14 Samoa

Prediction 1 has a difference of 6 points on England and 8 points on Samoa - 14 points difference

Prediction 2 has a difference of 18 points on England and 4 points on Samoa - 22 points difference

Prediction 1 wins. Does that make sense?

Oui. Bein Sport broadcasts up to two each week. Those not available on Bein Sport are available on the internet via Livestream.

Not sure that it does. I Think that predicting the winner and the points gap is the fairer way. That is the method the professional bookmakers use.

I hate to gamble on rugby league because it is so unpredictable. Look at the NRL Grand Final for example. The Sydney Roosters score two brilliant tries in the first ten minutes, and appear to be outclassing South Sydney. Then the situation completely changes and Souths equalise by half time before running away with the game in the second half.

Completely up to you!

I have got Two Tribes with an Eddie Hemmings voiceover In my head as I read this!

Souths din't play the Roosters in the GF. And Ben Roberts is not a very good player. Mind you, I'm not convinced Matt Smith is either.

You can argue that spine are good players till you're blue in the face, only Simona is any good and Stanley before injury. They have no competent player to take them round the park and average kicking game.

There are 4 top class centres in that squad but it means nothing with terrible halfbacks. Note how scotland over achieved at the World Cup.

England will put points on them 2nd half.

Samoa have always looked good on paper but have always been underachievers.
They have never shown any real pride in the team or the jersey.
This time they have taken a leaf from the Fijian book and have spent a few weeks in camp in Samoa, soaking up the culture many of them have either forgotten, or had little contact with, since many of them were raised in Auckland or Sydney.

They managed a really good win over a near full strength Fiji to qualify for this tournament, which is probably their best result yet in International League, and a strong result however you look at it.
Since then they have had a solid buildup that has included a lot of events and bonding exercises to build up pride in the jersey.
In previous years, and even in the world cup, they basically just threw together a bunch of pro players at the last minute, many of whom had never met each other, and expected them to perform, which didn't work for obvious reasons.
On the other hand, Fiji did everything right in the buildup to the last two world cups, including many camps in Fiji and games between possible's and probable's etc etc etc.
I don't know if Samoa can win, but I do know they have given themselves a much, much better chance then they gave themselves in the World Cup, with virtually a month of camps and bonding sessions.
They will be up for the best game they have ever played, and will have a very strong supporter base at the ground as well.

Sorry, Souths played Roosters in the preliminary final, which I attended.

It will be one of those games where we will have to ride a pretty big storm early and for a first game of a tournament this is going to be pretty tough.

As has been said their weakness is that they have no real leaders around the park so struggle when finishing their sets etc. We have to get into the grind and give them nothing early doors that might encourage them.

Although Ben Roberts has improved a lot in the second half of the season, he's still crap. Having said that I'm not convinced about Matty Smith either

I wouldn't be shocked if Samoa win this one or if it is a close England win.

But in neither case do I think it is do or die - I could see England losing to Samoa and then winning against Aus/NZ. I think this is the most open 4N ever and I'd be surprised if anything was decided on the first weekend.

It won't be a walk in the park by any means but we will beat Samoa

It's the best opener we could hope for. Makes a change as we usually end up getting caught cold straight off the flight. I fancy us though even without Peacock.

we will win by at least 20 and if we don't the coach should walk after the 1st game.

People don't realize that if it hadn't been for an incident at a Brisbane nightclub, Reni Maitua would have been playing for Samoa (at either no. 6 or no. 13) and the task England would have faced would have been much more difficult.

based on what? he had half a good game in the play offs out of the whole season.

Maitua is average at best. Widdop is a far superior 6.