3 game series next year games at kc stadium, saints new stadia and the stoop?

Good game, dispite the bad timing of the game.

I'm going to give Macca some credit, he campaigned to get this game and should get some credit for giving the SL a high intensity fixture that will give international players some more game time.

Also the defence was pretty solid, we lacked attacking qualities and that is Macca's problem with his selection at halfback.
But better selection may give better results.

I'm not saying we are world beaters, and I think Macca could have selected better, but I reckon he will be in charge come the 4 nations.

Apart from Shenton who unfortunately made some bad errors to mar an otherwise decent display.

Peacock is finished on that performance. I thought the same last week against us, but thought stupidly he was just rusty.
Shirley running around like the proverbial headless chicken offers nothing in attack. Wilkin played well as did Benny. Jammer was OK most of the time but worryingly looked knackered at times.

Could anyone tell me why Crabtree wasn't selected?

Sia and Meli looked really good for the other side.

He also made the tackle on George Carmont tracking back after Richards and Hodgson broke free.

Shenton played well but made a couple of bad mistakes. He's made some like that in the past, hopefully it won't become a feature of his game.

Graham was superb, looked like one of the only players with a chance of breaking the line.

Wilkin put in a good account of himself, justified his selection and put his name in the hat for the 4 nations.

Soliola played well at centre and showed he has decent hands which I thought were non existent.

Meli also played well, no bad errors from him as we're used to seeing on the wing, he even cleaned up Wilkin's grubber through early on. Took his try well and showed good pace tracking back on Shenton.

Puletua had an average game for me, as usual it took a few men to take him down but he didn't make many metres in the process. He made a couple of fantastic offloads but didn't see much else from him unfortunately.

A fair assesment of our boys.

Maybe Tony was saving his energy for Sunday, or maybe it was just a tougher game than than the standard SL game with defences on top, meaning big TP couldn't just run through at will.

No halfbacks,no chance!
I actually felt sorry for Sinfield last night,he went Into the game In the poorest form of his life and playing In a position that he aint comfortable with.
Despite that Ill give him credit that he didnt go hiding even though what he was doing wasnt particulary working out.
On the other hand his half back partner was more than happy to walk round the pitch with has hands In his pocket and let everyone else try to create.
Its actualy quite hard to judge the backs because they didnt get any decent ball it was just simply shifting It across the line.
I hope Peacock can get back to something like because were going to need that at the end of the year.
At this level Carvell Is just an out and out plodder,he must pick Crabtree ahead of him next time in fact Mason should be given a go before Carvell again.
Hopefully that was Mickymacs last ever England appearance, back to Ireland.
Curlytop was another non performer, J Tomkins has all the skills to be a good thirteen doesn't he?
I thought Robinson went well again,him and Roby at the end of the year.
Another Giant needs to be looked at IMO and thats Mgillvery(spell) he's a lot more dynamic than Hall.
Brough and Widdop at halves should at least give the backs something to work with.

Im glad we lost that game really,had we won then Mcnamara would of been spouting on how far England had progrssed and the RL would of been lapping it up.The international game needs a shake up thats something we all agree on.First and foremost though we need to find a good coach for the England job,players need to be picked in their right possitions and also picked on for and not past glories.

I didn't enjoy this game at all.
The ref had obviously had someone influence him on his holding down timings. You could have had a cup of tea before some of the players let go and got up, particularly the exiles (although I am biased).
The effect was exactly the opposite of what he (or someone) wanted ... presumably to let the game flow.
If he had given penalties properly according to sensible timings, we would have had more tries and a more interesting, honest game. England may well have lost by more ... but that is immaterial.

I had no problems with the refereeing, reminded much of an origin/international/NRL game, much more defense orientated and I'd rather the ref give the players an extra second in the ruck than blow for 15-20 pens every night. I agree with most that the half backs were very poor, but I don't think you can blame either really, Sinfield is'nt a stand off and may organise things okish but is by no means someone who can unlock a defense let alone a good one and Myler's game is all about support play essentially an extra full back but the coaching team should know this and can only blame themselves for picking them togather. If you was to pick a team for the 4 nations on last night performances, I think there would be a few people missing out, but as we all know international teams are never picked solely on form, apparently reputation and past triumphs mean a lot to the boys at the top!

McIlorum played? I only had half an eye on the game and having missed the line ups, honestly did not notice him at all.

Well that shows how poor our game is to be honest, you can say we had players missing, but the exiles could of selected a few more quality players king, the monaghans, Webb off the top of my head. Thought the forwards did well, but the half backs were none existent, dispels any comments about rangi Chase not being a quality player. Myler is a support player, but if you're not making breaks, he's useless. Tomkins made a few tackles on his own line keeping them in the match. The outside backs were given nothing to work with, shenton or bridge got nothing to work with all night.

Forwards did okay, tackled well and took the ball up, but again little creativity from them.

I'd like to be optimistic, but as already mentioned other than leuluai none of the exiles would make their international (nz or Australia) but more worrying if English Chase, leuluai, tp and buderus would all make the England team.

We're as far behind now as we've ever been

You could tell when he was on because we lost what little impetus we had going forward. Its hardly surprising as he's not even the best hooker at Wigan.

What was wrong with the timing? Friday afternoon early summer, plenty of time to assess the performance and tweak before the winter.