Quote Bullseye="Bullseye"TBH England have been poor for the last 2 seasons. Versus NZ we were dour and uninspiring. We needed to raise our game after that and we didn’t. Some things that stood out for me:
1. We lacked intensity in defence. There was poor line speed and a lack of aggression. Occasionally we raised it but too often vs NZ and Australia we let their pack bully us – check out the metres made stats. The idea we have a good pack is a myth. On paper we might but not when it matters. The Burgesses are way out of form. Players struggled to read Hodgson, Bateman is too small, Hill was knackered, Taylor too ill disciplined, Farrell not good enough, Clark underused.
2. Our lack of dominance up front made it hard for the halfbacks and they lack the quality of Johnson/Cronk/Thurston anyway. Bennett wants a midfield general but there isn’t one. Williams is good running the ball but is dodgy defensively and apparently is “not vocal enough”. We need playmakers who can call the shots. Brown is too slow/past it. Gale isn’t good enough. Widdop is steady but need to be partnered with someone who can complement him. Answers on a postcard.
3. Our backs lack star quality. The wings are adequate but there’s nobody capable of doing anything special when it’s really needed e.g. Robinson/Offiah/Newlove/Davies etc. Lomax is steady but not going to worry the opposition. Percival is barely out of nappies. Watkins needs to get involved more and be more proactive and aggressive.
Where do we go from here? We need a combination of Wane’s grubby tactics in defence and Powell’s approach to attack. I don’t think we have the quality really and can’t see it coming through either unfortunately.'"
I agree with most of this and I think England will get stuffed in the World Cup if the selection and tactics don't change.
There needs to be a wholly different approach, picking players on form and should be a few warm up games against, for example a Yorkshire side or an England reserves side, with a settled core of the England team team so that the players have the opportunity to gel with well practiced plays, rather than the headless chicken approach we have just witnessed.
My idea of the 'core' is: full back - Ratchford, centres - Griffin and Currie, the halves - Gale and Williams, with set plays on the left and right for each. Hookers - Clark and Houghton / Hodgson. If he's fit LF should be O'Loughlin as old as he is, as he provides leadership. You may not think that these players are the right ones or that they are good enough, but we should at least try to give the spine of the side a chance to train and play together as much as possible.
I also think that Darryl Powell should be part of the coaching team to bring some ideas and flair to the backs. This reliance on forward power, in other words trying to play the Aussie way, just doesn't work. We played like we were coached by forwards only, and fell for the Aussie pre-match comments that we would use our size and power
Another area that requires vast improvement is our kicking game. Shaun Johnson killed us with his grubbers over our line. I'm not saying that is all we should do but certainly the team should know who's going to kick and what type of kick is coming.
All in all England need to play the RL way not the NRL way and picking form players in their specialist positions. We need to play to our strengths - off loading and putting on set moves at speed, in other words playing expansively as any team in the world will struggle against those tactics if we get the timing and teamwork right.
If we lose against the Aussie and NZ in the World Cup, at least we will have gone down entertaining.
How did 30K squeeze into Headingley? 
