Mystic Joe says

We beat Australia by 2 scores.
We beat PNG by less than the Aussies did
Final is England vs NZ.
We win by 24 points to ten.

or I hope any way.

In fact, if i am hoping for stuff. I hope we stuff everyone and then Warrington signs Graham and swaps Hodgeson's contract for William slater's.

This is do-able guys.

Both England and Australia haven't got 100% ideal squads. Play hard and stay focused. Don't put the heads down and focus on the desire to do one over the Aussies and we are home free.

"William Slater's"

being shown at the bel air plus you can get some breakfast.

It's worse than that, I don't think the 3/4s would beat Saints either. We used to have centres who could hold their own against the Aussies and wingers like Robinson and Offiah who were at least the equal of their opponents, but from the start of SL things have been in a steep decline.

For the last 4 or 5 years in particular the English/British 3/4 line up has been very poor but this appears to be plumbing new depths.

Tomkins and the constantly injured Eastmond aside do we currently have any backs who are international standard?

I really hope I'm proved wrong, but I fear that the only way we can avoid a 40+ point pummelling is for the game to be turned into a forward battle. We can have no other strategy.

Lockers will tackle everything that moves (and still get criticised) I'm sure but in the forwards we need massive performances - Graham to be firing, Fielden to step up a couple of gears and the boys playing in the NRL to justify their big reputations.

We need to forget trying to win the game and set out to hurt the Ozzies (legitmately, but with the odd massive punch up if possible!).

We need to face facts: other than the genius of Tomkins we have nothing to offer in the backs whatsoever. The only thing I would want from Robinson is for him to have the best kicking game of his life.

If he does that and his distribution is average but the forwards perform we will stand a chance of keeping the defeat down to an unembarrassing margin.

Is it me or is this all a bit depressing?

Thank God we have the WCC to look forward to!

We're going to get battered.

At WCC?

I wasn't going to say out but ... I agree.




Nah just trolling

Like when Wire got battered in their last WCC, oh no wait Wire haven't played in a WCC have they.

Don't worry just trolling you.

No mention on BBC North West Tonight on the game thank the lord for ITV Granada who showed around 45sec.

well just for that I am gonna be supporting dragons.

Aus 52-4 Eng. Something horrible like that I reckon.

Just out of interest Whats the biggest margin England have lost by.....?

The result in Melbourne in the WC I think. 52-6 (sure that was it. Watched 60 mins from the bar tbh)

Well kids its beltin down here in Melbourne so it should be a leveller. Aussies are mega confident and the England team havent been given a second in the local media.
Looks like the Storm have the same problem as us with the local football team, went to watch Melbourne Victory last neet @ the Eithad arena and they were singing anti-Storm songs. Seems like the nutbag tendances have trancended 11K miles as they were setting flares off and giving the travelling Adelaide fans plenty of grief. The football on show was something akin to what you see on Fosters fields.
Look out for the WIGAN RLFC flag tomoz with Tommy, Harry, Scotty and Tony on.

Has Aami Park got a roof cos it was peeing down last time at Etihad and the friggers shut the roof.

The rain is probably our best chance of keeping things close. I still reckon the bookies have it about right, though.

Only + 18 for england most fans are predicting alot more

Do you wish to re-evaluate this statement?

Australia deserved to win. They were the better side across the board.

They did not need the help of archer and the three blind mice - one of the worst performances by a team of officials that I have seen in an England/GB vs Australia game and that really is saying something. Australia would have won anyway; all the officials did was make sure that casual fans won't bother to watch and denied all the fans potentially a closer and therefore more exiting game.

International RL will never grow in size until we get impartial referees from neutral countries.

These [url=http://premium1.uploadit.org/taliesin/AAMIpark/Wigan-flags-1.JPGTravelling Wiganers[/url sat/stood behind me at AAMI Park & didn't hold Archer n Co in high regard




Dodgy calls & an England try disallowed under the sticks,(whilst giving Tate 'Benefit of the Doubt' ?) didn't help the cause but with a clueless muppet like McNamara setting the lineup/gameplan - England was doomed to lose

My thoughts on the game.

England – poor
Aussies – poor
Officials – poor

Scoreline flattered the Aussies, with 12 points that they shouldn’t have had making a huge difference to the pattern of the game. What I mean is that if the score were 14-20 rather than 14-32 then it could have been game on. That said we were awful, but had we been able to control the ball we could have run them close.

Not at all impressed with Aus. OK it was wet but they weren’t much better than us. They have a few injuries notably Inglis, but that was almost our second string. Think NZ will win it.

not really, we'd have got assraped whether the ref was a convict, kiwi, chinese, martian etc.

Has anyone else been very disappointed by the performances of Burgess and Ellis these past 3 weeks? Not saying they have played badly, but they were supposed to be world class forwards who had been playing brilliantly in Australia and winning Player of the Year awards etc.

Surely a chance for them to step up to the mark, particularly with the absence of Morley and Peacock. What has also annoyed me is that there seem to have been interviews/quotes from one or both of them almost every day in the press about what they were going to be doing etc - now it's how they are going to maintain momentum and professional attitude etc against PNG. Let's hope they actually put in world-class performances at the weekend. The likes of Sam etc may then have a bit more space to create something.

I agree, barely noticed Ellis.