That would be Sinfield, when he went to scrum half a grip was finally gotten on the game... McGuire and Myler were anonymous, Thurston and Lockyer will have a field day next week.

Sinfield and Tomkins may be the way to go after all!

I don't have a problem with Myler (saw enough of him for Salford to know he's a class player), other than being picked to play for an important Test match despite him only playing one competitive match (A friendly) in over four months.

It would be like Brian Noble being GB and Wigan coach and suddenly picking Ainscough out of nowhere even though he's not played for a similar amount of time. I'm sure that would cause eyebrows being raised from rival fans accusing Noble of bias?

I disagree about it not being clear but do agree that they have been awarded before. It's water under the bridge anyway.


Yes, Myler did begin to play in the second half although he wasn't exactly bossing the team. Maguire is always the same and I don't know why Smith continues to play him. Probably because he's from Leeds.


Yup. I think that just confirms all our fears of an almighty tonking at the JJB! (Sorry, DW!)

I'm actually quite looking forward to see Lockyer, Thurston, Slater, Inglis and Haynes turn on the style.

What an un-organised shambles that was!

Sinfield ran round like a headless chicken for the majority of the game and thankfully managed to pull himself together for a period of about 10 second half minutes. He'll be lucky not to get seriously injured next week with all his dithering.

As for the halfbacks

fair play again to Myler for turning his preformence around in the 2nd half because he had little to no support from his halfback partner in McGuire(didn't see any sort of eveidence that Myler can guide a side around the field though, he an individual player like Sam but just not as good) or the organising loose forward in Sinfield(for 70 minutes) and as for the hookers! How poor was Moore's 20minute stint? and then Roby just looks like a player thats lost his way.

Fair play to guys like Peacock, Graham and Ellis because without them we'd have lost that game.

Like i've said in my next post, he was really quiet in the first half along with Maguire, but started to play in the second half and showed some wits and rugby sense about him - whilst Maguire was still largely out of it (I rate Maguire, i just think he was poor tonight by his standards).

The problem i've had in the whole Myler v Tomkins debate has been entirely around the seemingly moving goalposts around team selection. It's on form/It's not on form, reputations dont count/do count etc, and the way TS actually conducted it with the media - e.g. the whole having to credit Myler (when he was shocking) when asked about Sam's performance in the Wales game, but not mentioning any of the other forwards for example when he was saying Burgess went well.

His subsequent comments playing down the importance of Sam's performance against Wales as not meaning he's had a great season (when we all know the awards he won), his views that you need an othodox scrum half, yet not actually asking the team to play like that - witnessed by swapping them around in the Wales game, and again tonight by Maguire and Sinfield doing most of the organising (I can only assume because TS told them to)

I don't have any issue at all with Myler, and my own views had been if selecting on form he shouldn't have made the squad have nothing to do with his ability as a player. It just seemed to make sense to me to pick players who had been performing to some sort of level of the past few months, and if he felt he needed an actual 7 then clearly there were options that he didn't even put in the 24 man squad.

I thought Tim Sheens approach to team selection for Australia was the right way to go about it, i.e. Form based, and at least consistent on the whole

So to summarise my views in a handy cheat sheet for anybodies future reference

1. Myler is a great young player, and i'm really looking forward to some great displays from him for England in the future
2. He was poor in form after being unsettled at Salford
3. He had not played the past few months for Salford
4. The only issue I have with TS is his conduct and handling of the whole Vs debate, if he'd just bloody pick Myler and stick with it without any of what I felt were unneeded comments about Sam then i'd actually have even backed him over this (whether I agreed one player was better than another or not).

Above everything i'm a bloody Rugby League FAN, and a Wigan Supporter, see the distinction?

And I mentioned the chip on your shoulder purely because you implied that I (rather than some others) was biased - I'm sorry.

No worries mate



I actually believe your lads term has always been the Piedome or the Stad D'la Crust, always makes me smile those - much better than the DW anyways

After that tonight i think it should be a Tomkins, Myler halfback partnership next week. BUT this is Tony Smith were talking about and he doesn't see the same game as everyone else. Was impressed with Eastmond and would like to see Shenton out of the 17 completely, he doesn't offer anything for me.

I think if you want to drop anybody fairly after tonights performance out of the two halfbacks it would have had to have been Maguire. I do however feel Maguire can do far far better than he did tonight.

I actually thought Shenton went alot better then i'd have thought he would but i still don't fancy him against the Aussies. I'd put Eastmond at left centre and tell him to keep attacking Justin Hodges who strikes me as a player that prefares attacking to defending and wouldn't relish a clash with Eastmond.

I'm not expecting any changes though tbh because i think Smith will want to give them all a fair crack of the whip.

Scott Moore looks the player most likely to be dropped if anyone.

How can it be a double movement? He was was tackled but not held, so he was titled to move the ball forward. A perfectly legal try.

I think he was dropped halfway through the first half!

Did i say it was, or that it could have been called as, as it has been in other games - it's try situation that is not 100% clear cut, as you can tell if you look at Mylers face, they can be given or not given it depends on the Ref at that split moment in time.

Shaun Briscoe also seemed to get the mid game axe but that maybe was more to do with them wanting to get Eastmond involved.

Eastmond must play 80minutes for me next week but i'd have him at centre either for Shenton or for Briscoe with Lee Smith moving to Fullback.

Yes, I thought that too because he seemed to have an ok game (for an England player, I mean!).


Eastmond has played at FB, centre and wing as well as 7 but he doesn't (yet?) have the organisational skills for 7 so I would play him at one of the other spots. He may be wasted on wing though as he can make tries as well as score them and of course loves to shimmy. Probably either centre or FB. I'm well impressed with the way he has improved defensively since his shoulder operation. I think he has sorted out his best tackling style.

Eastmond straight in at centre for me. Dont get the hype around this Shenton.

Too lightweight for me and i'd worry about him in defence against the Aussies. That may sound strange considering i'd put Eastmond in at centre but unlike Shenton he'll keep his opposite number at least as busy in defence as he'll be himslef.

I think Ryan Atkins is the better long term bet at this level due to his sheer size. He has alot of work to do on other parts of his game but he at least has a natural base.

Exactly. He's paper weight in defence and offers no threat at all in attack. Atleast with Eastmond he is unpredictable and has a creative spark even if he isnt a natural centre.

It's be a huge risk to put all 3 of Eastmond, Tomkins and Myler in the starting line up next week but we've got nothing to lose and the chances are we'd catch the Aussies by suprise with them.

They won't know diddly squat about any of them and if they don't respect them with ball in hand they'll get burned because all 3 have the skill and pace to trouble the worlds best defence.

He got a bad knock early on did not look great when he was going off.

mcguire would be the perfect fullback if he had the bottle to take the high ball under pressure and commit to one on one tackle. his tries are mainly in a supporting role. for me tomkins and myler should have played and smith bottled making a tough call.

If a player isn't held in a tackle, he is deemed to have broken the tackle and therefore he can get up and play on. In Myler's case he didn't to get up and play on, all had to do was push the ball forward for a try.

I agree by the look on his face he wasn't sure if he had score or not, but he is a young player and properly does not know all the rules of the game.

The tackle can be complete 'Tackled: Grounded' though if he is held by a player (this means physical not a held call) and the ball or the hand or arm carrying the ball touches the ground, which it quite clearly does as he hits the deck with Greenshields on him (Greenshields has his hands going round Mylers shoulders so he clearly fulfils the held criteria).

He is carrying the ball in his right hand as he starts to get held, then as he's heading towards the ground he brings his left hand round so both his hands are holding the ball so he doesn't loose it in the impact, he then impacts the ground his ball carrying arm is in contact with the ground and Greenshields is on is on his back - tackle complete under clause Grounded

It's after this Greenshields rolls with him and loses contact with him.

Tackles only count as broken in a grounded situation if the tackling player loses contact with the player with the ball before he is grounded, there's no length of time holding him element to the rules in that situation, he's grounded right away because Greenshields is on his back.

You can count the tackle not complete if you feel that the player was 'sliding', at which point the tackle is only complete once the slide ends. It then comes down to whether that particular ref feels a slide needs suitable forward momentum to class as a slide, a majority sideways roll may or may not be classed as a slide

This is why I said sometimes they are given sometimes not it depends on the ref's view of the contact of opposing player and the man with the ball as the ball or his hand or arm carrying it comes into contact with the ground.

Like i said, there's definitely a case to be made for it not being a try, hence my comment that we should at the time have considered ourselves lucky to go ahead.

I praised Myler in having the Rugby wits to keep on moving and then edge the ball over the line in case the referee didn't feel the tackle was complete - smart lad and a lot would have frozen unsure what to do.

Still it's an interesting debate.

Having been the game, Myler and McGuire were awful first half, but the two Myler tries will keep him in the side despite another poor game.

Our problem however is in the pack. The Aussies will kill us.

I agree, but according to the "Sky Experts" last night we have the "Best Front Row" in the World and the "Best 2nd row in the World!"!