Oh no, Sam Burgess has a bit of an Aussie twang in his voice.....

so people are putting the blame on sam tomkins? How the hell is the full back supposed to play off the back of a hammered pack who can't get out of their own half.

Sam Burgess and Ellis did not look like NRL players! too many daft errors.

Line up for next week:-

1. Tomkins
2. Hall
3. Cudjoe
4. Clubb
5. Briscoe
6. Widdop
7. Robinson
8. Burgess
9. Roby
10. Graham
11. Ellis
12. Tomkins
13. O'Loughlin

14. Fielden
15. Crabtree
16. Lunt
17. Harrison

people are also forgetting this england team is missing sinfield,mcguire,pryce,eastmond,peacock,morley and we've refused to take gleeson on tour which bemuses me!

Yes, but the difference is that the referees in the Southern Hemisphere are not being given the opportunity to develop. The NRL won't develop kiwi refs unless they give up their life/family in NZ and move to Australia.

At least English Rugby League gave the likes of Thierry Alibert, Mohammed Drizza a chance. Australia gave Glen Black, David Pakieto and Leon Williamson no chance at all to develop.

Great performance from the officials well apart from the 4 tries that weren't tries oh and the refs call.

We were missing more players than Australia and the lads did rather well.

It must be a coach's dream to send a team out against England. All you have to do is sit tight and wait and you're guaranteed to get possession in dangerous positions from errors and penalties. Neither NZ nor Aus have had to play any rugby to beat us. The frustrating thing is that in both games, when we managed to complete a couple of sets in a row, we looked more than capable of competing. Unfortunately, however, we can't get through 5 minutes of rugby without making an error or giving away a penalty. Until we sort that out we'll never see the best of the likes of Tomkins at this level.

There are French and NZ refs.

The Aussies use the 'quality' excuse to get their own refs IMO. Also it puts pressure on neutral referees to ref the game in their favour because unless the Aussies get their way, the ref gets kicked out of international refereeing.

Small things make big differences at international level.

Ben Westwood outstanding again. Class. Only on for chunks of the game but still top tackler.

Think i'll be taping the England game next week. Not getting up that early for a meaningless game. They'll probably lose anyway......

Spot on! They also take little interest in helping PNG develop. That's how the Aussies work they are so self centred but that's why they do a cracking job on any sporting field.

This is where the international RL board need to step into save our game as the Aussies would be more than happy with just the NRL & Origin.

What are you talking about? Cooper Cronk isn't exactly a bad replacement, Inglis was out of form before his injury and Jarryd Hayne would be playing out of position. It's not like having you're two captains and first choice halfbacks and best centre injured is it?

Billy Slater would have struggled behind that england pack today. Blaming Sam Tomkins is crazy!

Aussies were as good as they needed to be. However they didn't put one sweeping, length of the field move. They just didn't make mistakes until it was all over. Both our wingers & centres were not up to it, though Briscoe & Cudjoe have the time & ability to come again. Should be a cracking final, NZ have nothing to fear.

I wouldn't like to single out Sam, as we were poor right across the backline again, but he does not convince me defensively or positionally as a full back at all. Paul Wellens has been tarred and feathered on here for much better full back performances than that in an international jersey.

Can't blame him for struggling in attack though - we failed yet again to gather any momentum up front.

I'd have to put Carvell in and any other players who have not played a game yet.

Blaming any of the players today is poor form. The video ref took the game out of our hands so as far as I'm concerned the players and coach are pretty much blameless. Yes they could have done better, however the video ref took the game out of our hands. One bad decision I can live with, two is a doubt but three is beyond poor. They may well have beaten us anyway but when playing teams of this quality you need some of the 50/50 to go your way but these weren't even 50/50!

Yet ironically people were happy to blame Widdop and Brown last week playing behind a pack that was 'more beaten'.

Got cheated tonight, in the World Cup this year and now we may aswel go for the hat-trick in the Ashes.

It's not about blaming Sam Tomkins. I think people are pointing out that he's not the one-man-messiah that some have made him out to be. He's a promising young player who has a long way to go. Today, he was poor in a poor side, and not to blame for England's defeat.

If I were an NRL scout judging on that game alone, the only players I'd want a second look at would be Graham and Westwood.

Correct. We should threaten not to play the ashes

Don't know why you've not included Westwood. Been Englans best player over both games.

Do you also want to blame those "cheating convicts" for the 165 unforced errors we made on the second tackle? Was it those "cheating convicts" that made Briscoe drop the most simplest of catches? Was it those "cheating convicts" that made O Loughlin forget he was a rugby player and just stand around aimlessly for the aussies first try?

England actively lost the game, errors meant the aussies were starting their sets in our 20 not their 20. the refs calls didnt help but the forward pass and the knock on tries both came off england errors.
Two crucial errors were going for two when we should go for a try and moron atkins running in to touch when we got a roll on for the first time in the game -these england players are incapable of putting together 10 or 20 good sets of six in a row, the best we got was 2 maybe three good sets without a knock on in attack or conceding a stupid penalty or running out of the defensive line

the kiwis make the aussies play under pressure, they are always in the game and that's why they have beaten them in a few finals

on tomkins (s) who is getting comment, why are we picking a player at full back who only plays there because he is a liability defending in the line? He cant run the ball out and cant read a bouncing ball, when he was on attack he made zero breaks and zero effective passes - all very well trundling out the beaten pack excuse but our forwards ran ok and there are halves in SL who play behind a crap pack and still impress.

To be honest the lads didn't completely disgrace themselves, small consolation I know. At least we battled throughout and didn't capitulate like we normally do in those positions. A couple of less silly mistakes and fair refs and we would have made a proper game of it.

I can't agree with that. Yes, there were some ropey calls, but to be honest Australia started to take it easy in the second half when they had a good lead. All ifs and buts, I know, but the hard truth is that we put them in the position to score all of those tries, questionable or otherwise, with our shocking discipline, with and without the ball.

Awesome, drop one of England's best players this morning and top tackler aswell.

Typical gooner.