Yep, I thought Mullaley should've been on earlier, he looked decent in his stint, but we really lacked size in the form of Keinhorst, and Walters. It's clear McDermott doesn't trust Achurch to do the tough stuff, but he'd offer more than 3 of the 4 second rowers in the Leeds 17 tonight.

I think he played Keinhorst and Walters for their contribution to the GF win which i fully agree with but like you say, it was clear he didn't trust them in the thick of the first half when it was nip and tuck.

I would scrap it for a while because it has run its course. Seeing players on the pitch afterwards laughing and joking around.....that's showing it up for the exhibition it's become. That wouldn't happened post CC or GF

I think he played them because we had no one else.

No mate , you are mixing him up with Westwood on Green , except Tamau was stood up not flat on his back , least not to start with

You can't just want to scrap the WCC cos you got spanked!

I think this should be a message to the RFL that they need to invest in the grass roots of the game and stimulate a growth in talent pool for the Super League - the NRL is leaving us well behind.

Achurch??

it would be typical of RL to scrap it simply because we are getting spanked. Then in 5-10 years when a few England performances have gotten everyone all excited and the cheerleaders have told us how much more intense the game is now because of Fax v Wakefield in the super wonder 8's and we can start it up again for a few years, be even worse, and scrap it all again.

No I wasn't a fan of this extended concept last year and I'm not one for going gooey eyed at anything NRL.

And ppl need stop with this "it'll show us what we need to do" BS.

It's almost 20 years since the 1997 competition. They'l area still miles ahead and they always will be. Playing them one game a year won't improve us. The likes of a Mike Cooper has gone to NRL turned into a good prop BUT that's because he's playing against then EVERY week.....not ONE week a year IF you qualify every year.

And it's not the 80 mins on the pitch why they win, it's the things off the pitch you don't see why they win. Plus again I'll repeat this, too much respect for the Aussies thing. Compare and contrast if that is Wigan or Saints coming for a playoff game to the reception NQC got tonight and all week, like chalk and cheese. I mean Thurston was one of their best players but definately not MOM yet he was given the MOM award such is the brown nosing given towards the NRL.

Oh goody, Smokey finding another way to moan about the 8's format.

He didn't get picked for the GF either (for Walters who hadn't played for several weeks) so can't say his absence is only about rewarding the GF winners.

That's more to do with certain players getting brown nosed by media/voters... Thurston was poor in the NRL gf but still got MOTM. Sinfield won best player in the world etc...

Stick with it were capable of winning, leeds saints and wigan all had injuries and are not in form. Widnes beat leeds and Salford best saints by bigger margins, should we scrap super league as well.

Gutted! Big chance to win and absolutely fell apart in the second half, no excuse for that.
people will look at the score and say that NRL teams are too good but we were completely containing them untll we decided to tackle everyone around the shoulder and completely give up after their lucky third try of the second half, it looked like we have no fitness
This wasnt helped by AGAIN only using one sub in the first half not good enough from the coach against an NRL team, if you dont trust them to come on they shouldn't be in the squad at all