england v australia

[St Albans tiger]

Lomax was a complete waste of time. Totally ineffective in attack and got monstered in defence.

[Tamworth Tiger]

Happy to disagree

[takethetwo]

Got to agree about Lomax.He offers nothing going forward, the rugby brain is there but he has no pace at all. Chris Hill should be dropped as well. Looked poor for the last 18 month and looks seriously unfit. Walmsley and Taylor have to play. I might get some stick here but changes for me :
Walmsley for Burgess
Taylor for Hill
Percival for Heighington (Bateman to SR)
Roby to play more minutes (Hodgson too slow to get the ball to Gale)
Ratchford for Lomax

[orrsome]

When will people realise, when you play the Ozzie’s you play the English way. We will never beat those robotics animals playing 5 drives and a kick. Hog ball Hodgson. O’Loughlin and Bateman need to be rested for the next game and let Percival mcmeeken and Roby have a run out. Gale is fighting for the ball ewith Hodgson in the side, I know the NRL pundits love him but he’s just a greedy sod and definitely believes in his own hype. I’d love to see an England side tackle the Ozzie’s with Powell in charge

This
However we will never play the open English way with selecting plodders like Heighington and it also seems that some of our NRL based players only know the Aussie way, Hodgson being a case in point.
As said, we need to get rid of Bennett, replace him with DP and then we will get players selected who play an expansive game rather than trying to match the Aussies at their own style of play which will never work.

[tigerfeat]

Benett limited his options with the mistakes he made in his squad id have shaul at full back liam watts would be there instead of heighinton id have definatly taken shenton as well

[tigerfeat]

I think there were 3 penaltys in yesterdays match ...child on other hand seems to be trying to set new record even commantotor remarked he was bit keen with whistle least they dont have to put up with him every week ...

[orrsome]

Benett limited his options with the mistakes he made in his squad id have shaul at full back liam watts would be there instead of heighinton id have definatly taken shenton as well

I agree about Shaul who is the second best full back we have had this season (behind Hardaker). Even St Helens don't play Lomax at full back on a regular basis!!!!!! andI really don't understand having a Wane bully at centre instead of either of the 2 form centres in Shenton or Percival???? This again is a defensive strategy rather than using our resources to play the English way.
I do understand that we have to combat the power of the Aussie forwards, but we need athletic forwards (like Watts) not poor forwards like Heighington just because he plays in the NRL.
The biggest bias toward the NRL is the selection of Hodgson to start over Roby. We looked a different / better team when Roby came on allowing us to play more of our own style of play.

Bennett really is not the man for the job and he is proving it by the selections he's making and the style of play he is using.

[HuddsTigers]

Got to agree about Lomax.He offers nothing going forward, the rugby brain is there but he has no pace at all. Chris Hill should be dropped as well. Looked poor for the last 18 month and looks seriously unfit. Walmsley and Taylor have to play. I might get some stick here but changes for me :
Walmsley for Burgess
Taylor for Hill
Percival for Heighington (Bateman to SR)
Roby to play more minutes (Hodgson too slow to get the ball to Gale)
Ratchford for Lomax

Don’t think you would find anyone who would disagree with that to be honest. I agree completely.

[tigers8rhinos]

for me percival for bateman ratchford for lomax at least. one other change is for someone else bar widdop to do the goal line drop outs as he constantly kept the pressure on us with is poor kicks. surely we have someone able to kick towards halfway as is kicks barely got over 30. we also need to play our game as schofield as said for months first half tried to play them at there game did nowt second half we moved the ball around and had them worried could easily have been level bar 2 clumsy drop balls.

[tigers8rhinos]

one other thing was we got nothing from the ref. the 2 big game turning penalties were wrong. we also here about how fast the aussie game is yet they were laying on in tackle more than us yet never pulled up on it. you could see many times it was annoying our backs. i bet if we get to final and thats a big if ( looking at some of these big hitters from so called 2nd tier countries ) i bet we dont get an english ref if we play aussies again.

[tigerfeat]

The one game ive seen with a english ref was ruined by the sound of his whistle trying to be the center of attention id rarther see the game flow then see child on the vision all the time

[takethetwo]

On another note, Tonga looked very good (against a young Scotland team). Can see them getting to the final.

[tigerfeat]

Thought ireland went well too liam finn was outstanding

[takethetwo]

As soon as I saw the Tonga squad I had £20 at 33/1.
Not a bad bet in what is effectively a 4 horse race.

[tigerfeat]

Good luck with that mate ive backed england i dont think there as far off beating aussies as some do but wel see ...

[takethetwo]

Yeah I obviously want England to win.
Tonga v England final would be interesting to watch lol.

[Jazzman]

Watching the game I thought the NRL based players tried to keep the ball amongst themselves far too much. Hodgson rarely went left and the attack didn't really click until Roby spread the ball both ways and brought Gale into the game. Even the Wigan supporters are saying on their board that Shenton should be left centre, unusual for them to praise of of our players over one of theirs.

I just hope Bateman doesn't go to second row and keep Mcmeeken out.

[mart0042]

The thing is if left edge is just so good and yet Bennett put a second row as the centre, effectively mulling that side. He also happens to be a right sided player at his club.

I said after the Samoa match mid year, that if you play Hodgson, you don't need a half back as he wants to do it all. Also oloughlin wants to play that role aswell, rather than the Cas way, of another prop. Which is what the Aussies do also.

Hodgson made too many errors and roby should be in. Move oloughlin to second row, taylor to prop, Currie to left second row. Percival to left centre.

Hill was ineffective after a poor season.

[Aid]

The thing is if left edge is just so good and yet Bennett put a second row as the centre, effectively mulling that side. He also happens to be a right sided player at his club.

I said after the Samoa match mid year, that if you play Hodgson, you don't need a half back as he wants to do it all. Also oloughlin wants to play that role aswell, rather than the Cas way, of another prop. Which is what the Aussies do also.

Hodgson made too many errors and roby should be in. Move oloughlin to second row, taylor to prop, Currie to left second row. Percival to left centre.

Hill was ineffective after a poor season.

According the official stats Hodgson made NO errors. Having said that I wouldn't play him. He thinks that he has to do everything! There was a case in the second half with England attacking the Aussie line, the ball came to Hodgson in the middle, instead of continuing the move to the right where we had men over he put in a dumb kick - attack over! He did that sort of thing constantly in the four nations last year.

[The Fox]

Just don't rate Hodgson, never have done. Didn't rate him when he was at Hull KR, and have yet to see him have anything near a half decent game for England.

But he plays in the NRL so ........therefore he must be picked, by the coach who only watches NRL games.

For my money he's not a patch on McShane.