Maguire simply isn't international standard as today proved but i suppose you have to play the cards your dealt was impressed with Sinfield he finally shown us a glimpse of his club form

Mcguire was awful, one of the worst test match performances i have ever seen, i cheered when he went off he should have come off after half an hour we might have stood a chance, totally out of his deopth and can't see him playing again for his country time to blood the youngsters thought sinfield played very well tbh, and smith got it wrong putting JP in the 2nd row the same side as Inglis should have been `Ellis

while i agree with mcguire not being international class, who is in britain. he played behind a pack that got mashed in the first half, so no half back would of made any difference. mcguire is more a support player who offers nothing different, he doesnt run at the line, tomkins and eastmond do and burrow does. lockyear doesnt run like he used to but he trys to get his hands on the ball and get them round the field at every oppertunity. when we got a bit of go forward we got a bit of joy, even if it was the 5 drives and a kick sl rubbish. remember if the aussies are getting bashed up front they can go wide, we cant cause we have no backs. not a dm fan but the kids a tryer il give him that.

Then you were talking it

how the hell have we won the last three grand finals with such a set of players?

sinfield is rubbish
mcguire is rubbish
burrow is a one trick pony
diskin is,and has always been, a slow rubbish player
burgess is a poor imitation of his brother.
donald is rubbish.
senior is past it.
smith can't tackle.

one question cries out at me.
if we are so bad, how is everybody else. i suggest these myopic fans stick to there own boards instead of making idiots of themselves on here

Burgess dropped 2 good balls from McGuire ???? you have to be joking good balls ! He was terrible today

I think you'll find only McGuire coming in for any stick.

I thought Sinfield did a good job and once Smith was on the wing, he was fine too (a defensive disaster in the first half though).

Sinfield was far better when he went into the dummy half (hooker) role.

Roby was very poor in that position.

thats because he is a full back/winger. he made a good job of centre in SL,as did lee gilmour.

however the aussies had dummy runners all over the place and the fringes were dragged all over the pitch leaving the outside backs isolated.
the fact is senior apart we don't have a good centre.
also a better coach would have the team far better organised

Hello and welcome to 2004!!

Burgess's first major contributions to the game were 2 dropped balls and a penalty conceded (and I'm sorry but you have to be awake at international level - even I knew McGuire was going to offload from the tackle, they were the sort of passes that were sticking in the second half).

Burgess was sloppy against France as well and dropped planty of ball, but somehow nothing sticks on him at the moment.

Quite. I think he's been trying a bit too hard. His ball security is terrible. The rest of his game is great though. But, at this level, being as far behind in talent terms as we are, he cannot turn the ball over as much as he has been doing.

And if one eyed Wigan fans think its' Sinfield and McGuires fault that Tomkins couldn;t get his hands on the ball for 50 mins then you have to question whether the kid is up to it yet. Do you think Andy Gregory would've let other players monopolise the ball?

Tomkins is not yet a dominating half back. He was completely overawed in the 1st half. The only people to blame for that are Tomkins himself and Smith for perhaps selecting him when he wasn't ready.

2nd half, Tomkins was much better but he will have to develop more to his game than that predictable step.

i cannot belief mags has been slaughterd yes he didnt play is best game for country but to write him of no.I think smith got it wrong playing jp 2nd row he defended too far in leaving argubly the worlds best player inglis and slater to have one on ones briscoe should have come in and forced the aussies to go round them a sliding defence which is used every week at leeds.The 2 new halves eastman and tomkins were good in last 25mins when we had more ball and all bares well for future.Sam burgess came to leeds with bradford this year and was slaughterd about his performance and was taken of ,yesterday he looked every inch the great young prospect he no doubt his .Point is class is permanent semi final last year mags was our best player for england the player andrew johns was raving about fact, he has scored in grand finals world club finals test matches against any country, fact still only 26 so come on lets get of his back .

The reason Tomkins was not seen in the first half was because our pack was getting destroyed. The introduction of Crabtree and Burgess, gave us a bit of grunt up front as they didnt seem intimidated by the Aussies. Also good ball from Sinfield at Hooker meant Tomkins was in the game more.

Absolutely spot on