Yep, we got carried away trying to batter the Aussie forwards in the middle and forgot about helping out the backs in defence, sometimes leaving half the field for 3 players to defend.

Brisbane, top post lad, exactly my thoughts on the issue. The Aussies move the ball right to left so quickly and smoothly that even 5 on 5 is hard to defend against. The Lockyer try was so well executed it was almost robotic. Every pass was just where the receiver wanted it.

The really sad thing is that nothing the Aussies did for a try was the result of anything other than having evasive quick runners on the end of well-timed passes where everyone had an idea of what was going to happen and where they needed to be. Whereas when England pass the ball wide its generally excrutiatingly slow and everything is telegraphed.

Watching the game again, McGuire's passing game was sooooo slow it was just awful with no sharpness at all.

Its not just the distribution though is it, we had no set plays no dummy runners and no shape in attack, we looked like a team who had never played together before and Australia looked like they had actually done a bit of training and knew what they were doing, its been the same for quite a few years now.

Bet you're not getting bored. Bet you spend the rest of the week on here talking cobblers.

F*** off to the VirtuaL terrace with all the other small town provinvial losers whose only pleasure is frothing over individual performances from our international side. One year we will dissapoint all those pratts and win. They won't know what to do with themselves.

Still doesn't make up for three GF twa**ings in a row though does it.

Ar4eh0le.

5 star thread

Leeds fans trying to defend their players for their embarassing display at the weekend.

If thats the best Lee Smith can do, im glad hes going to union.

Did peacock play?

McGuire LOL

If we had started with Westwood instead of Peacock, Eastmond instead of mcGuire and a cardboard cut out instead of Lee Smith, we would have beat the aussies.

After the last three Grand Finals I'll bet you are.

Spot on and down to the lack of structure you mentioned earlier. At times it's too obvious what's going to happen and there's a lack of runners and options. That's all too easy to defend against.

Yet when a coach tries to impose a structure, we get performances like the first half on Saturday.

England looked much better playing in a more "off the cuff" style in the second forty.

Sinfield not having the discipline to hold the line was the key ingredient in that disaster of a first half!!

The key ingredient was trying to play a compressed defence against a team confident in their own ability to move the ball from their right to left quicker than you can slide across to cover.

Whenever the ball was within fifteen yards of Australia's right touchline, there were no more than two or three England defenders to their right of the centre spot.

It wouldn't have mattered who England had on their right hand side, with that structure and the passing ability of Lockyer and Thurston they were always going to get killed.

Second half England spread a bit more and went more man on man, which didn't allow the Aussies to outflank them as easily.

The structure of the English defensive line - Sinnys fault.

The distribution of the ball from the PTB to the backs - Sinnys fault.

All the troubles in Afghanistan – Sinnys fault.

The current economic turndown - Sinnys fault.

Global warming - Sinnys fault.

Have I missed anything?

Truly awful attempt.