What's with the 'cheating convicts' bit? Didn't the Australian guy knock though following Briscoe's knock on?

Wow.

Surely that's McNamara's fault for playing him there.
I know you wouldn't like to single out Sam... but he's the only player you mention


I don't think it's fair to compare him to wingnut as Sam Tomkins is a half back playing full back against the world's best side, wheras Wellens was a fullback who was found wanting on several occasions on the international stage.

So the video ref calls at vital moments in the game and the forward pass when we were on a roll obviously didn't help the Aussies win then ?

They could afford to take it easy because of those calls though.

Rugby league cannot be taken seriously when a team plays at home with officials from the same country.

I'm only mentioning him because I was responding to a comment about him. You'll notice I also said that we were poor right across the backs. Essentially I was agreeing with what you're saying - he doesn't look like a full back.

Because hes the only English back that would make the toyota cup comp, so our fans think he should be able to beat the aussies by himself, so when we lose, he is scapegoat number one.

?

Fair play


I think he can get away with playing at full back in SL, but as we all to well know, internationals are in a different galaxy.

I think a triangle of 7. Eastmond 6. Tomkins and 1. Widdop (or a superleague fullback who can claim the spot) is ultimately the way forward. Obviously that wasn't possible this time round, but I wish we'd taken an organising half-back. Someone like Deacon could potentially have made a difference in terms of us finding our way through our sets of 6.

They didn't "help" they completely turned the game in Australia's favour.

At least we can build a roof.

For me Tomkins has to be in the halfbacks. Widdop is probably our best fullback... and he can't even get into the first team! Ok he is behind the world's best but that's the situation we find ourselves facing. Ideally he'd be loaned to another NRL club where he'd get first team experience week in, week out, but we know that's not how it works.
As a Wigan fan let me say that if Deacon had been on the field he'd have been crucified.

Just out of interest, why is that? Dodgy defence? Obviously he's not a particularly dangerous player, but he does keep a team ticking over, and he has a great kicking game. These are two things which this England side has desperately lacked.

I thought Deacon's role in your GF performance against us was vastly underrated. But then, I don't see him play every week.

Last week he was a full back playing half back now he's a half back playing full back.

Well he's never done anything at international level when he's actually been in relevant form so what makes you think he'll suddenly start doing something now? He wasn't good enough back in the day so why would he be now? It would be like picking Wellens over Widdop.

I'm certainly not advocating it as any kind of long term solution, but I think it would have been hepful to have him, or someone with similar qualities, in the squad. The fact is we took a squad without a half back that can organise a side and without a single player with a kicking game. Picking Deacon would have been excusable IMO if only because there was nobody in the squad capable of doing the kind of (crucially important) job that he does - as such it would have been nothing like picking Wellens over Widdop.

Deacon's organising skills aren't good enough to compensate for his lack of other aspects of play. Suggest Brough maybe but not Deacon.

If we pick Deacon we might as well all return to carrying clubs and living in caves.

It was an awful game to watch, and frustrating too as Australia did nothing special - any team would have scored points with the amount of good field position they were handed on a plate by our own stupidity. Errors like the ones we made have no place in Test football.

That we would have been close if it wasn't for some unbelievably bad officiating makes it even more annoying. If we had completed a few more sets and got them working out of their own 20/30 we'd have had a real chance.

England still showed that when it comes to one man out, head down backside up, run at the tackler cos you got no brains, there is no other team on the planet that beat them in that aspect of the game!!

As regards the scrum half position, it seems Robinson is finally starting to fulfil the potential he showed when he first came into SL. He'll be good for us.

Apart from australia and nz who run the ball in harder and make more ground.

I've yet to see you post anything but absolute rubbish on here.

You seem intent on spending your debut year on here embarrassing yourself. So far, so good.