Finished 20-12 pal

Yep watching the match i thought Billy Slater was electric with the ball in hand, but when you put up bombs to him or asked him to defend he looked far more vulnerable. I thought the Warriors fullback looked far better. This was despite him having to handle a stiff arm elbow in the face from Cameron Smith, and then a clothesline special which should have been a straight red card from one of the Melbourne forwards.

Yet again i was also underwhelmed by Gareth Widdop. I cant understand people wanting him as one of the England halves. He looks to me like just a solid run of the mill player, who just happens to be playing in the NRL. He didnt create anything or look dangerous with the ball in hand.

Agree, he literally did NOTHING.

To be fair, widdop had very good first half of the season.

Billy slater is suspect at times under kicks. I missed today's game.

The fullback for warriors I'd imagine was Kevin Locke ? He's had very very good season and kept lance hohaia from getting in at fullback.

To be fair to Widdop Melbourne hardly had a sniff in the Warriors half in the hour I watched. He was solid enough but literally everything goes through Slater, Smith and especially Cronk and nobody else gets much of a look in.

Tough to judge him on today but one thing is for sure he'll need to be more involved for England.

Hasn't Hohaia been playing off the bench at hooker? I watched the NRL Full Time show in the week and Hohaia scored in their last game, think he was playing hooker then. Did he play today?

cheers mate.
must admit im surprised that NZ have reached the final.i would have bet my house that wests would have beat them the other week.no way did i imagine either that they would beat the storm. shows what i know.
im going for a sea eagles win BTW peeps(so put your money on NZ )

Yes he's been coming on at hooker but has been utility player filling in anywhere off the bench.

He came off the bench last week to score a KC special from a meter out.

Jamie Lyon was awesome in their game with the Broncos. The way he stopped the try from being scored was amazing.

He started today at hooker, went off and I don't recall him coming back on.
What a great game, well done NZ

I'd agee , one of the best players I've ever seen. It was a pleasure to see him in the redvee

Slater is a quality player without a doubt but is prone to errors in big games ( tri nations final and world cup final both had costly errors from him )

He does make errors in big games must admit it's a joy to watch as he's a arrogant Aussie convict who's up there with tomkins as one of the biggest s in rugby league.

Awesome player without doubt but the way people think guys like Slater are super human over here is laughable at times.

I think the origin games are the reason we think they're unbeatable yet our top guys like Graham, Ellis, Roby and Tomkins could excel in that environment.