Agreed, Robinson should start. Brown was anonymous. As good as Robinson was, the Aussie and Kiwis won't give him anywhere near the space he had this morning. Sam Tomkins has it all to do, he is the only strike we have in the back line. I liked the inroads Ellis and Burgess were making, we will pick up some points off them if they are backed up by Tomkins and Widdop.




Briscoe, Atkins and Hall we're all solid but you need more than that going up against the Aussies and Kiwis. They have no flair in attack.

I thought Atkins and Hall were both defensively poor. Hall didn't do much in attack but Atkins was ok in that respect. We have a definite weakness on that wing which will be targeted next weekend.

I personally think we will be targeted out wide on both flanks as dont think NZ or Australia rate either flank defensively. We will ship points if they throw the ball wide.

It wasn't just those 2 that whole left flank was facing a 2/3 man over-lap in the 2nd half.

sam tomkins really needs to improve his passing, 90% of his balls where behind the man stopping all momentum. if its the same next week then going to be some easy targets for the NZ defence

we don't stand an earthly. I hope it is not embarrassing.

Morley now out of the series with a torn bicep.

Oh yeah, losing morley is a massive blow.

I mean with him.....we were going to play badly, lose and look stupid.

Without him, we are going to play badly, lose and look stupid.

Then we were going to have to put up with AP prancing on here like some devine oracle of knowledge and explaining to us all that england are no good. Thanks for the heads up on that one, sherlock.

It's not so much that they are crap defensively, it's just they aren't used to dealing with the:

execution
speed
skill
and plethora of plays that the aussies put on whenever they moved the ball wide.

If they don't deal with it week in week out they ain't going to be able to for a few games at the end of the season.

Had we had a fully fit squad to chose from we may have actually run the Aussies close, but as it stands anything under a 20 point defeat against NZ or AU will be acceptable.

Are there any 'highlights' online yet?

against a weakened Aussie side? No
against the side the that we faced at Elland Road last November? No chance

You went to Elland Road? I did. I saw us running them close until Shenton was carried off and then we leaked tries on his edge. I think that the Aussies were bemused by the Tomkins and Eastmond combo last year and had Shenton remained on the field, we could have beaten them at Elland Road.

A game lasts for eighty minutes and not until someone gets injured three quarters into the match. However I still think that we have some chances ain this four nations if this England squad plays to their abilities for eighty minutes and stays fit.

But the warm up games against Cumbria and NZM where probably the least promising warm up games that I have seen in my lifetime.

Lets up the action really starts this Saturday!