You've attended the training sessions then? What was it like?

I'm taking a guess mate based on his demeanour. Are all your posts well informed or do you occasionally offer opinion?

My opinion is that on this issue you are talking crap. From what I have read the most successful coach in RL history is far more relaxed away from the media & doesn't have problems motivating his players.

Why the need to be abusive? I am just holding an opinion, which clearly you don't agree with.

The video of Bennett laughing along with the team when Burgess was leading the post game sing along suggests he has a very different relationship off camera.

We lost by a point against a good Kiwi team where in reality we played far better than the score line suggests and but for a few handling errors and 1 misplaced pass could have been 18 point plus ahead.

We had a poor 1st half against a fired up Scottish team with a point to prove but sorted things out in the 2nd half.

He made a couple of changes that reflected what most people were saying : our centres were poor and our half backs lacked spark. That's a big plus on what we've seen before with some other coaches reluctance to change.

He obviously knows how he wants the team to play and has given them clear directions.

The only valid criticism I believe is is interviewing persona which is not great from a PR viewpoint.

For Saturday I'd keep Percival at Centre and bring in Cooper/Taylor moving Sam Burgess to SR and playing Cooper/Graham at 13 for a bit more size.

I'm undecided about full back and the halves. I'm not a fan of chopping and changing those positions as players need to develop an understanding, however, I'm not convinced by Lomax or Gale & we are yet to see Williams against Australia or NZ. I'm leaning towards Widdop at FB and Gale & Williams in the halves.

What I think is more important is the tactics. Although many people are commenting how good Australia are they play a very similar style to Bennett of playing for position and completing sets. They are without doubt better at it than we are and I don't think we can match them playing the same way. I feel we need to offer something different and take a few chances, I think they can be rattled. We need to play with a bit more fire and really get stuck into them, we have seen in the past they can be put off their game.

Quick line speed is a must. Need to be far sharper and more aggressive in defence.

Agree Steve, this is an absolute must. Intensity and line speed has to be absolute red lining and we certainly need to up the aggression and NOT stand back and show them respect like we have in the past and start playing when the game is gone.

Yep. Up in their faces every tackle. Hitting them after they've passed/kicked etc etc.

Pressure and hit Thurston. He was playing on one leg v NZ. He's obviously got a knock of some kind.

Robert Hicks is the referee for the game.

Benett is on record that Williams and Widdop are not 'half backs' (i.e. Number 7) so he'll never play them both in combination. Gale has ben disappointing but he's clearly not been allowed to steer the team around the field as he does for Cas, Hodgson seems to have that role. Give Gale the main playmaking responsibility and I think he'll come good.

Looks like Bennett has pretty much confirmed Widdop will be back in and he mentions giving lads a game last week so they didn't feel like the month was wasted so I expect we'll be back to the side that played the Kiwis (expect Percival for Sarginson and maybe Farrell for Bateman or a prop).

Graham looks like he'll be ok also according to the interview I read.

I read that has well and it says if we beat the ozzies by more then 12 points they might be in trouble for the final I know its a big IF but it has got to happen some time why not Sunday

whenever i've seen Graham in the nrl he sometimes operates as an extra half to move the ball about a bit, he has a great pair of hands. hope he can do this a bit more for england if needed

Yes, but Canterbury have done that ploy to death now, and opposing teams are wise to it.

Hope he doesn't, its painfully slow and has resulted in the Bulldogs attack been awful this year.

It worked really well for half a season, but as soon as clubs started to mark him like a halfback it went to dust, as he isn't quick enough to change the play once its in motion. The other downside for the Dogs is that it really hid how awful their halfbacks were (Hodkinson, Reynolds and now Mbye).

Having said that, if its not overused, it could work very well (e.g. one play every second or third set).

As an aside, I don't think Bennett will see this competition as a failure even if we lose badly to Australia. His aim is to prepare us for the World Cup next year. This competition has introduced him to most of the available players, and given him the chance to see who thrives and who simply isn't good enough at this level. I expect we'll see a number of changes for next year, particularly if we don't do well against Australia (including a revival of Aussiegate).

On the interview side, Bennett is apparently a very good public speaker - he used to make a mint out of giving motivational talks to businesses when he was at the Broncos previously, mostly based off his books. Given that he doesn't want to do them for England, it might be better to just skip him entirely and let Betts do all the talking.

You were going so well up to this point.

Marge Simpson's sister?

No thanks.

Paul Anderson? Paul Sculthorpe? There's enough in the entourage to choose from.

A thick sounding Lancastrian or a thick sounding Yorkshireman talking in cliches. Give me Bennett any day. Ah, yeh, nah, yeh, mate.

England: J Lomax (St Helens); J McGillvary (Huddersfield), K Watkins (Leeds), M Percival (St Helens), R Hall (Leeds); G Widdop (St George Illawarra), K Brown (Widnes); C Hill (Warrington), J Hodgson (Canberra), J Graham (Canterbury Bulldogs), E Whitehead (Canberra), J Bateman (Wigan), S Burgess (South Sydney, capt). Subs: D Clark (Warrington), T Burgess (South Sydney), G Burgess (South Sydney), M Cooper (St George Illawarra).

Kevin Brown at scrum half. Thoughts??

Is this confirmed? On the photographs of today's captain's run, Gale and Widdop are both there.

If Brown does play, three different half back combinations in three games doesn't give anyone the chance to build the understanding half backs need to combine effectively.
I think Bennett needs to decide the best half back combination (whoever it may be) and play them consistently unless we suffer injuries.
However, I'm pleased for Brown who I have always liked watching as a player.
Overall, I'm not sold on Bennett and his boring style of rugby.

So Williams having had the best performance from an English half so far (albeit not brilliant) does him no favours at all?

Clearly WB is going to say, it's all about the World Cup.

And only one Wiganer in the side!

I think that you can have a go at Bennet's style in front of the camera but, his coaching ability is beyond question.
If the players take on board how he wants them to play, he will have us beating the Aussies, maybe not tomorrow but, he can get this England team to the next level.