The 'master tactician' has once again made some strange decisions. Wonder if once again he will have no game plan to go with it!

Perhaps Smith didn't want the Aussies to know too much about Tomkins. He's still relatively unheard of on the world stage, that could work to his and England's favour.

Or maybe his misguided club loyalties last week really didn't pay off.

i honestly don't think it is that emma. why he seems to do what he does regarding selections i don't know but since 05 he has done it on a regular basis.

with regards to game plans/tactics we rarely had them at leeds in attack. he got the defence brilliantly organised but we seemed to rely on individual skills rather then set moves(04 GF apart).
sadly for GB/england we look like a team of strangers

Then he should'nt be the coach imo he's had 2 games to experiment with selections and positions we are now in the middle of a tournament.
As for the myler comment why would you play him against france "for experience" when you should be giving a new HB pairing as much game time as possible together to read each others games!!
He's sending Mcguire and Tompkins in cold against one of the best teams in the world but as long as mylers got some gametime experience that's ok!!

can't knock what smith did at leeds, but with the squad at his disposal trophies were always on the horizon as his replacement has found.
The blokes a big head who thrives on contraversial selections.
I know of several Leeds players who did not enjoy their rugby under him, he is lucky to have stepped in at wire when they are throwing money about.
give him the bradford job now they are on the decline see if he can turn them around, I think not.

Maybe he is just a diddlydonk.

He's saving his best combinatins and personnel for the final...

No really

Lee Smith is still the only player in the squad that makes no sense at all - either for today (Senior being a far better centre right now) or the 'future' since he'll likely be in Union.

As for Tomkins, I did predict that Smith may do this. Another way to look at this is that Tomkins was always first choice, but Myler hadn't played a real game for months. The game against France was therefore the logical chance to get Myler a game in case McGuire/Tomkins get injured. He couldn't risk playing both together against France in case things went pear-shaped. If that's the case it suggests Smith must see Tomkins/Myler as the future, as there'd be other choices like Rob Burrow for second string halfback.

It's interesting that so much focus has been put on Tomkins, because for England to stand any chance at all I think it's actually McGuire that has to play a blinder.

I like the pack and I think the bench has the right balance. I am just worried about the threequarters.

I think the only people worried by our threequarters are England fans. I suspect Australia and NZ don't know anything about them and really don't care. In a way that's a good thing - it's up to our lads to show the world they can play a bit.

Really - you think the Aussies will be quaking in their boots at the thought of Tomkins ball in hand?

The Aussies will concentrating on their own game because they know if they play to anything like their collective ability this game will be a massacre.

Presumably you'd be getting some sort of holiday in Australia for your money as well, not just nipping over for the games? No disrespect to Wigan and Doncaster, but they don't have the same appeal as holiday destinations.

On an unrelated note, my grammar detectors are unhappy about the use of the phrase "He's got some offload" attributed to Tony Smith.

I am reminded very much of the build up to the 1990 tour.

All the pre match build up was about the size and power of the Aussie centres, Menninga and McGaw. They were bigger and better than Hodges and Inglis. Mal Reilly selected two midgets in comparison to deal with them, Darryl Powell and Carl Gibson. The rest is history.

Maybe, just maybe, we could see another David and Goliath on Saturday?

Or am I just desperately trying to find some optimism.

Nice to see the usual suspects letting the bile they reserve for Smith rise to the surface.