He certainly was and I can now seeing missing the Kiwi game. I just hope it doesnt hurt the young lads confidence too much !

i dont think i have ever seen a game were the winger has played a full half without a centre!!!!!!! lee smith leaving tom to rot on the wing

What doesnt kill you makes you stronger and I fully expect a fired up Tom Briscoe to prove a few doubters wrong next season. I have no doubts he will be an international player for years to come.

I agree Smith will not pick him against the Kiwis I would imagine Lee Smith will get wing spot (which he will do OK), but after the first half defensive no show he can count himself a lucky boy.

Be interested to see if Tom was injured/ill from what a previous poster has said about him throwing up before half time.

I think he was just [isick[/i as fook of being left stranded out on that wing !!!

And he would have been justified. Three experienced Leeds players left him out to dry and on his debut against Australia as well.

Right decision was made showed by a much better second half performance in attack and defence.


I'm just glad it wasn't fox on that side you lot would have butchered him yet as it was one of your own he did nothing wrong

What he said

I think what a lot of people are forgetting (Especially that noob Zod from the dark side who has been constantly on his computer since the final whistle slating Tom)is that the Aussies strongest side is unfortunately the side Tom was on. They have a number of players who play for the same team and play with each other every day of the week. They have ripped apart team and team over the past few years on this side.
I and most people knew that this is where their most dangerous attacks would come from and I knew Tom was in for a hard afternoons work with him more than likely encountering some form of criticism from the Dobbins fans who have found it hard to swallow that Tom has pinched their players spot !!!
Anyone with an ounce of rugby league knowledge could see that yes there were huge gaps on Toms side for the Aussies to punch through but it was easy to see that Smith left him stranded on a good half a dozen times making these gaps.
Also the Aussies kick and chase in the first half was second to none and Toms kick returns was no worse than anyone else including Shaun Briscoe. It wasnt our teams fault the Aussies excelled in chasing us down and giving us no room at all. Its just another thing they are very good at !
Keep you chin in Tom you have been made a scape goat but just remember you was in that team for one reason and thats because you deserve to be in it !!

2nd half - when the aussies switched off as the job was done.

Nail ,Head ,Fact

Yeah because replacing one player gives the other 12 on the pitch special powers

pillock.

So it was co-incidence that we were better in both attack and defence after the weak link was taken out of the firing line at half time was it?

What about Smith,Maguire and to a extent Peacock then...what was they

All poor especially the first two but the coach made a decision at half time and it proved to be the right one.

What its done for the young lads confidence who knows. I for one hope he isn't cast out and is given the chance to redeem himself next week

Plenty of big games ahead of him dont panic. He was on the end of the weakest defensive set up possible, he will learn from that. Wont get picked ahead of Lee Smith next week though IMO.

I think the Australians are too professional to just take the second half at a canter and some credit should be given to England in the second period.
I don't remember 'The Invincibles' letting up and I don't suppose their ethos has changed from the early 80's.

The improved performance of the backline in the second half was on the back of more dominant forward play and the fact that Smith was moved out to the wing.

Are you for real ?
That is exactly what they did yesterday and I bet they got a real battering in the changing room afterwards for allowing England back in.
Yesterday was the clearest example you will ever see of a team thinking the game is wrapped up and taking their foot off the gas too early.
Oh hang on, ok the second clearest example.The first was when Wakey visited Cravan Park and made Rovers look very silly !!!

The Australians were blowing out their Harris's in the second half. THAT was a big reason they didn't have the same intensity as the first half, we on the other hand got better and didn't flag as much.

Hello Dopey, shouldn't you be playing seven a side with your mates? You really are clueless.

The "right decision" was to take off, or at least castigate (which Smith did) the players that actually caused the problems to start with I.e. Smith, McGuire and the back row forwards that went AWOL.
It really didn't matter who was on the wing as he would have (like Briscoe did) faced 3 or more attackers.
If you actually watch the 2nd half, the gaps that were so apparent in the 1st half suddenly disappeared. Yet again more proof that this was nothing to do with the winger.
For me the only mistake/s Briscoe made was to place too much trust in his inside 'defenders'
Even in a poor Hull side he has never been so exposed as he was yesterday and this was the reason he couldn't/didn't react accordingly.

I for one wouldn't mind if Forest Fox gets his chance against the Kiwis, after all he is a 'recognised' winger- Hopefully he’ll have a better inside combination from an attack and most importantly a DEFENCE point of view.

what i thought was funny about the eng aus game, when the video ref was making the decisions, living on a pray came on and i just giggled because at the time i thought england was living on a pray but to their credit they made it a bettert score line to look at... quite random but x factor has just reminded me.

if its already been mentioned sorry but i thought it a disgrace bringing young brisco off yesterday when after watching on tv today i went to the game ,you couldnt really fault the lad ,it was smith and maguire who missed tackles and left the lad isolated yet smith went into his postion ,eastmond was great in the 2nd half ,Danny is great young lad but hes not good enough for this level and never really has been ,when the try line is on offer Danny Maguire is the fastest thing on two legs but when hes got to chase back to make a tackle hes not got the pace

That's an excellent point about Peacock... I'm afraid I was too busy shouting "get that useless McGuire off" to notice.

said that yesterday, JP if playing 2nd row shouldn't have been defending the same side as Inglis was on,surely it should have been Ellis on that side, that said mcGuire was hopeless how many missed tackles,poor kicks,wrong option,forced passes was great all the leeds fans around us defending him and everyone else cheering when he was taken off, shouldn'tbe in the team again imo

Anyone who blames Briscoe for England's first half performance, or who thinks that his substitution was the key factor in a better second half, is either a one-eyed to$$er or clueless about RL. Or both.

That is all.