He passed to Hall for his two tries last week.

That'll learn 'em.

England are clearly hoping to keep the opening encounter v Australia close on the scoreboard IMO

Aye expect a safety first game.

I think having Sam Burgess playing wider in good ball could be a significant positive

Who else do you put at centre? I'd have picked Currie, most would pick Percival, but he'd get eaten alive, the lad is way off test level. At least Bateman would be solid, albeit not very threatening.

Assuming we can defend up the middle, the area that always causes us most difficulty is when the Aussie halfbacks attack the area around the where the halfback/centre defend. They make sure they always have multiple options and if our centres aren't rock solid gaps will open everywhere. England always look completely at sea when Australia move the ball around, so our best hope is that they get dragged into a forward dominated scrap. The most interesting thing for me will be to see if we can structure some moves ourselves, particularly down the left side which is where both Widdopp and Gale operate.

I think having Burgess wider will create doubt in their edge defence and hopefully lead to running some of the effective shapes you mentioned.

That may well have been true a couple of years ago but Burgess has not done much this season to think he will cause doubt.
Hopefully the pride in playing for your country will bring out the best in him.
I think we can match them in the forwards and possibly in the backs.
All will depend on how our halves perform and can we put together any moves that will open up their defence as both our wingers can finish.

people say Burgess not done much this year but he was awarded souths player of the year. so he obviously has been not going too bad.

Perhaps it's more in reference to his previous standards, really need him to look like the player he was 3/4 years. Chris Hill is another in the forwards that needs to rediscover his form, lucky to be starting after the season he's had

In one of the worst teams in the NRL in 2017 - not sure what that says?

I had a dream last night that England won 24-20
Not sure who it was against though

Walmsley out with a virus, Currie added to the bench. Disappointing, Walmsley was one player I was looking forward to seeing how he did at this level.

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