Win, lose or draw next week

Sinfield will be Englands Man of the series

Maybe thats why all those forums have deleted their Sinny posts in anticipation

I said straight after the Aussie game last week that sinfield should play hooker as he was very very good at 9.

If I'm being honest I wouldn't even have picked sinfield in the whole squad as I don't think he is good enough to play 13 at international level.

IMO though sinfield could make a top class hooker at international level. He moved us round the field from the ruck, made some clever plays and was his normal good in defence.

He seems to play better when he's more involved and is used as a main man as he does for Leeds.

He's my England player of four nations.

He has to be used in the right role. His role for Leeds, and this time for England (other than when at hooker) has been as the central playmaker - something that's more normally a scrum half role. I thought we were really good with the hooker and two halves as pivots, but not so good when we tried to be more expansive and play three pivots and wide running second rows. The strength of the team is the way we openned the game - props: The collisions of Morley, workrate of Peacock, stamina and passing of Graham, mobility of Burgess and offloads from Crabtree.

Tinyrod displays his complete ignorance of the game every time he puts his fat fingers to keyboard.

his best performance in an international shirt, brilliant tonight.

He just gets better in every big game he plays. Great performance tonight.

Sinfield has been outstanding this series and the reason is because he his the central playmaker, he is calling the shots and dictating the play like he does for his club, this is the first time I can remember him being given this role in an international set up.

He has though suprised me how well he is playing at hooker, he is looking very much a Cameron Smith type of hooker.

I would give him the Captains armband as he looks to be playing that role anyway!

On the other hand Roby has been very poor since the quick scoot from dummy half has been taken out of the game (for the better I feel) Roby needs to learn to a bit cleverer and his passing/decision making needs to improve

Man of the series imo has to be between Ellis, Crabtree & Sinfield. When the games started I thought what the f/uck is Smith playing at, Sinfield proved me wrong tonight, and even as a Bulls fan Ihave no problem admitting that it was a top class performance frm yoir skipper tonight.

Not only is he a fantastic player but he would make a fantastic captain.
Its always been my opinion that when possible a captain should be a Loose Forward or Hooker anyway, for communication reasons if nothing else.

I think Peacock serves the armband with pride but for the sake of England I feel its time to hand it to Kevin.

Excellent game from Sinfield tonight (and across the board from the England side for that matter). I really like his control of the game from dummy half. Making Roby look distinctly one dimensional. I'm with Rogues on this...I hope it's the start of the death knell for the 'scooter hooker'.

Sinfield has really stood up at international level this series. He has performed well in all 3 games. His second half performance against the Aussies was class. His kicking yesterday was different class and the Kiwis didnt want to know. His tackling was first rate and he talking to all the players and giving them a "pick up". Really is an all round world class player.

I can't say any more than has already been said about Kev's performance. He was sharp and organised at dummy half and controlled the game when he was playing pivot. 80 minutes of game time as well - credit to the coach there.
But what a great performance from the rest of the big guys. Really stuck it to NZ up front. Crabtree plyed a little longer than he did against the Aussies (think Morley was hurt when he went off), and was absolutely outstanding. He looks the real deal, big, agile and skillfull.

Briscoe seems to have come in for some stick, and I'm not sure why? He fumbled one kick, but in the end didn't panic and made it safe. Other than that he got involved really well (I also though he was okay last week).