Tony Smith added to his growing list of excuses by blaiming dewy conditions for the poor England performance: www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... uotes.html This seems at odds with Jaime Peacock hoping for bad weather: www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 05655.html Perhaps Smith has not been a pretend Englishman long enough. Surely he should know that in late October there may be a little condensation. What will Smith blame next week....the wrong type of snow? Leaves on the pitch?

Tony Smith added to his growing list of excuses by blaiming dewy conditions for the poor England performance: www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... uotes.html This seems at odds with Jaime Peacock hoping for bad weather: www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 05655.html Perhaps Smith has not been a pretend Englishman long enough. Surely he should know that in late October there may be a little condensation. What will Smith blame next week....the wrong type of snow? Leaves on the pitch?

he's becme a joke. he won't be around much longer though so it doesn't really matter. who is there to take over from him net season though?

"it took us a little time to get our heads around how to play in those conditions with this new group of players."

Maybe you should get a group of players who can play at 8PM-ish then Tony! Or did you not know that dew comes down in the evenings in Britain? The man's a joke!

Translation.

"We have very few, if any, players who are good enough for international RL"!!!!

why does he stare away when being interviewed? It's like he's trying to focus on teh voices in his head!

you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. We've had enough coaches over the last 30 years to realise coach is not really the problem!

What did they need, a hard dry surface?

Last time they got that Australia....well, they had to declare just before lunch in Melbourne!

Thought he was being anti-semetic,trying to steal Nick Griffin's spotlight

His latest quote today is "we need to step up 3 rungs" for next week, pity he,s not on the same ladder as NZ/OZ.

We're in the same position for international coach as we are players - criticising the incumbent but not sure who there's available to replace him who's better! Then again we're not restricted by the small matter of where they were born when it comes to coach.

The fact that France were the better side for 40 minutes last night shows that it's all about the players and not the coach....

The coach is making mistakes though.

When he was appointed, having seen what he did at Leeds, I said he wasn't up to the task. He makes mistakes, he panics, I just don't think he is a good coach.

You look at what he did in the World Cup last year, England spent more time and money being ready for that World Cup than any other in their history, and sure they players are not good, but they turned up completely clueless about basic things.

Now you look at that game against France and Smith said they were nervous. Find, maybe they are playing against a side with a handful of semi professional players in its ranks.

The problem is the tactics England had were dreadful. When they didn't blow France off the park in the first ten minutes they had no plan B.

It took the French side to just wear itself out before England found anything at all.


You look at that first English try, the way the French defense compressed, even someone that doesn't watch Rugby League would know that if the defense reacts like that, you go back to that. Get them compressed then spin it wide....and they didn't.

If the coaches job isn't to prepare his team and give them some extra tips on how to break down the opposition...then what is his job?

Who selects the players? Who plays them out of position? Who is responsible for them gelling? Who refuses to put two props on the bench? Who goes on an overseas tour with only four prop forwards and lets Leeds players room with Leeds players and St.Helens players room with St.Helens players? Who is supposed to come up with cohesive tactics to break down teams like France and PNG, let alone Australia.

I agree that there's not exactly a long list of replacements, and our current crop of backs is so mediocre and Australia's so outstanding that the team would probably be soundly beaten even if it was well coached. But it's not well coached, and it's certainly not well managed.

This may or may not be true...but a coach going on about players being too excited and dewy conditions has lost the plot. This is one time I am happy that the press do not pay too much attention.

Don't quality players adapt to the conditions.

That is telling me you actually believe what Smith is saying. I find it much mroe interesting that he has to blame "dew" for us being a very very poor side last night. We had no ideas agianst a team that we should utterly destroy.

I think he is talking rubbish and that you have misunderstood me.

If we'd have had more than just the odd world class players on show last night, he wouldn't be moaning about dew!

We made incredibly hard work of beating an average side.

hes the best coach in the frickin world!!

In Smith We Trust

Would that be why you finished 10th?

Champions mate

Cup winners, fool. Oh and tenth.

Champions.

And how many finals did you get to?

League position was irrelevant, we lost the league when we announced Lowes as head coach late last season. Smith had 6 months with the team and made them champions for the first time in 35 years.

He also had 7 months with the same team and lead them to 10th. Worse than what Cullen did.

Let him have a full season n judge. At the end of the day, we are champions, you and saints are not. thats all that matters

Based on my evidence i'd say giving him a full season will see you go even further backwards with Pinocchio at the helm.

Leeds are champions, btw.

super league champions.

We are Challenge Cup Champions.

Something you can only dream about after yet another semi final defeat

Lol i've only seen us win the thing 5 times.

I'm reminded of that song "Have you ever seen the Wire win the League" (next line is "have you f***," btw).