This. Watched two junior games this morning, neither were up to much.

Think brilliaint is going a bit over the top imo but why does he feel the need to give away stupid penalities especially when England were playing well?As Clarkey said correctly they eventually scored from that brain fart.Not singling him out by the way as Burgess was just as bad with the dropped balls.

Because the Chairman of the RLIF is Colin Love........an Australian.

Everyone singles out players after defeats like this, usually with their club bias affecting their opinions. All the backs were terrible, Lockers is never a 6 and looked out of place and although Robinson had his moments he is average at this level and Tomkins did nothing. Goulding, Cudjoe, Atkins and Briscoe look way out of their depth at this level. IMO only Graham has performed well in both games. Others have had their moments but just not consistant enough. We made far too many errors in our own half, and thats what killed us.

Thought Atkins was awful again. Was good to see Harrison go well on his debut. Though your guy Westwood was in the top 3 today for us.

Am I the only person who thinks the criticism of the officials is OTT? I can only think of one decision that stands out as shockingly poor.

I wish some people would use their eyes and not their ears when watching to Sky Sports sometimes.

Looks like Atkins has alot of improving to do on the international scene. The most notible difference for me was in super league, Atkins has great leg drive and can break through tackles and get good metres forward. But against New Zealand and Australia he was struggling to do this.

Maybe it is OTT, but there is certainly far more than just one decision that was poor. The forward pass, the tap by Cam Smith, countless times in the ruck. He was far from consistant for both teams. But having said that it was our error count that killed us, we just kept gifting them possession.

thing is Atkins can knock on on his own line against any team he likes in Superleague on his own line, and the Wire defence will keep most teams out most of the time.....unfortunately time and time again we are shocked that gifting australia posession in this area leads to a try......
even
didnt matter that it was Atkins knocking on The Aussies would have still scored even if it was gleeson paul newlove or Jonathan davies at centre......

I think everyone was in agreement before a ball was passed that our back line was poor.......why single out Atkins....

or was it something to do with the fact that the messiah sam tomkins was ordinary as feck at both stand off and full back and a different scapegoat was needed.


on the cheating thing i was sickened long before eddie hemmings piped up after that ridiculous forward pass...so its either time to take the tests seriously and get some proper un biased referees or we may as well scrap international rugby league before it ends up like voting in the eurovision song contest

First post, so hello to everyone!

Not having the benefit of Sky, had to do with the highlights(?) on the beeb.

And I have to say the refereeing left a lot to be desired. England set off at a cracking pace, but couldn't seem to sustain it. Australia capitalised on every mistake.

Neil

Well your singling out Tomkins, is that because he plays for Wigan???



Seriously though, no player needs to be singled out as many of them have been poor. Atkins deserves his criticism as do many other England players, Tomkins included.

Lets not make excuses for this shambles.Not one player in the england team did them selfs any justice.It just shows how much the Sky team big up super league players.To make us believe theY are world class,but when it comes down to them proving it.They get found wanting time and time again.

Quote ="Bondi_Warrior"Well your singling out Tomkins, is that because he plays for Wigan??? '" Apparently Wigan are the answqer to beating the Aussies: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=475446 deluded.

Quote ="Bondi_Warrior"Well your singling out Tomkins, is that because he plays for Wigan??? '" Apparently Wigan are the answqer to beating the Aussies: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=475446 deluded.

We will never beat Australia with an England Squad, we need to revert back to Great Britain. With the injuries we had Briers would have done a lot better.
Why did they drop Widdop ?
Where was Ryan Hall ?

Officiating of todays game - poor,biased and disgraceful, and yes I did watch it and couldnt help feeling we had NO chance, as even if we looked like getting close, the Ref and or VR could be relied on to ensure their precious 'Green & Gold' were helped all they could.
Some of the decisions were SO bad it was laughable and frankly brings into question the viability of Internationals with non neutral officials.
If we ever have to play Aus in Aus again, I say we grow some, and tell them that without a neutral - get stuffed, the lets see how the International scene develops then....

We can`t blaim refs decisions, end of the day we havn`t got a strong enough squad. As i said scrap the england team.

I actually did laugh uncontrollably at just how far forward that pass was. It was even funnier knowing that we got pulled back for something that was 50/50 ( in fact more like 60/40 in favour of backwards) and then I realized that I what i was laughing at and stopped very suddenly.

It was a disgrace

because he was the worst of the back line....again.

Like one of the abpve posters have said, against SL etams Wire can make up for his mistakes, at this level no team can. It wasnt an anti-wire post so no need to throw the toys out of the pram

He was awful last week but Cudjoe was worse today as was S. Tomkins.

Again it would be ahrd to single out bad players. It is easier to say who did well.

Robinson
Graham
Westwood
Roby
were all great.

Looking back at last year's Tri Nations game versus the Aussies, Steve Ganson reffed and I'm sure that we insisted on his appointment against the wishes of the Australian management...

I'm not going to get in a huff, i just don't care enough but even if the ref is substandard they should still be a neutral. You're telling me the best New Zealand has to offer couldn't have done a decent job ?
Yet another reason why international rugby is a joke and why i still can't be fooked with it.

I wouldn't say that great is a suitable choice of word, no England player has been great throughout the whole tournament.

The above did ok in another poor England performance, a very weakened aussie side didn't even come out of 2nd gear and still managed to cruise past us with very little drama.

This so called pack of ours that could apparently match the aussies have been totally outplayed in this tournament, a few of them have shown a bit of grit and have been fairly solid but thats about it.

Were light years behind the Australians in technical ability, skill and power and were also well behind the Kiwis when they manage to turn up with a strong looking squad.

The only way you would have an international tournament that would get the sponsors queing up to throw money at RL along with it being a better spectacle is to have a tri nations tournament that consists of Australia, New Zealand and a Rest Of The World team to be made up from other nations like England, Samoa and Tonga etc

It could even be a SL based team where its a mixture of kiwis, aussies and the best of our english players and call it an Anzac type team.

I could get behind that scheme. Suggest it to the Rfl

Would this England team have gone any better?

1. Tomkins
2. Hall
3. Gleeson
4. Shenton
5. Smith
6. McGuire
7. Eastmond
8. Peacock
9. Sinfield
10. Graham
11. Ellis
12. Burgess
13. Westwood

14. Morley
15. Roby
16. O'Loughlin
17. Crabtree

One thing that was blatantly clear yesterday was the inability of anyone in the England side to push the team around the park. Roby is many things, a starting hooker will never be one of them - he can create impact around the ruck, but he does not put the ball into the hands of the forwards quickly & accurately enough to warrant a place on the field in the first twenty minutes. The Aussies were cam & composed even when England made 70 metres driving from the kick off from Burgess' try. They took their chances when presnted and were clinical in execution, regardless of assistance or otherwise from the ref.

Injuries affected England's opportunity to be competitive in this tournament - there are players on that tour who are nowhere near international level. One thing they have all shown in two tests though which has been lacking in recent years is spirit, they can't be faulted for the effort they put in even though their ability was lacking...

Quote ="magic piano"One thing that was blatantly clear yesterday was the inability of anyone in the England side to push the team around the park. '" Which is a point i made before the tournament started on the England thread along with England lacking a tactical kicker. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=474705&p=15627037#p15627037 Quote ="Rob Wire"Whose the little general in that side whose going to take us round the pitch, i see no natural organiser in that side and no decent tactical kicker.'" I don't think it would have mattered what team England had put out, even with everyone fit the result would have been similar. A weakened Australia side seemed to play within themselves with the extra gears if required, even with everyone fit England still have no little general and we certainly don't have a tactical kicker in the mould of Lee Briers.

Quote ="magic piano"One thing that was blatantly clear yesterday was the inability of anyone in the England side to push the team around the park. '" Which is a point i made before the tournament started on the England thread along with England lacking a tactical kicker. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=474705&p=15627037#p15627037 Quote ="Rob Wire"Whose the little general in that side whose going to take us round the pitch, i see no natural organiser in that side and no decent tactical kicker.'" I don't think it would have mattered what team England had put out, even with everyone fit the result would have been similar. A weakened Australia side seemed to play within themselves with the extra gears if required, even with everyone fit England still have no little general and we certainly don't have a tactical kicker in the mould of Lee Briers.