I don't think we have moved a lot closer since, say, the 2008 world cup (when we were atrocious) but if you think back to the Four Nations in 2011 we put up a better fight and some very good individual tries were scored. What we missed in 2011 was two quality halfbacks (and in the case of a 6, just a halfback!). SOO has taken years to develop into what it is now. We have only just started with the Exiles idea and it was way too soon to move it to two games.

Most of all though we need a good coach and we don't have a good coach. If only Daniel Anderson would coach the England team...


Matty Smith has only been in the Knights for five minutes. But aside from that, the noobs might have trained with the England side for a year or so but last night was the first time they had played with them. McBanana made a big error in not playing at least a couple of them - preferably the halfbacks - in the first match. They would then have got over the immediate problem of being both inexperienced and new to the team. The Exiles are the far more experienced players who have a significant number of former internationals in their ranks. They also had absolutely no pressure on them whereas the England players were under the spotlight.

I think you'll find it was a mod who brought you into it.

No, you did

The MOD edited her post because it was a disgrace. Her original post can be seen where I quoted it further back in the thread.

Oh no I didn't ... (it's not Christmas yet is it?)


Posted at 12:44.

That was the first mention of you on this thread. You don't really spring into my mind when I'm posting, Pete.

Hardly a disgrace. A lot less vitriolic than some of the stuff that's been spouted on here before now.

I've spent the last two years of my life in and out of employment so it's not like I didn't know what I was talking about.

I don't think so and neither does McBanana.
He said as much when I heard him talk about his selection process at a forum three days before he picked this Knight level team.

You have to think who out of that team would get in a first choice 17 for England.
Robes - Yes.
Briscoe - Probable.
Atkins. Carvell, Mossop, Charnley and Jones-Buchanan - Possibles.
Thats a long way from saying these are "the very best players we have to offer". OTT.

Is it 5 or 6 players who play in the NRL we have on top of those "rested" on wednesday.

It was clearly no more than a trial and unfortunately most of them failed. In particular Scott Taylor , Farrell, Smith (the goons are welcome to him on that performance) Brough, Ablett and I'm afraid to say, Wilkin were abject.
Of the fringe players I tohugh only Ratchford did himself proud.

Ratchford impressed me. He looked like the only player who was really up for it in the England team. While he still has to sort out his defensive positioning a bit - something that will no doubt come with experience - I thought he looked good at fullback.

Pity we have two strong fullbacks and no halves! I remember when Smith was the national coach and he played Tomkins and Eastmond together in the Four Nations final at Leeds. I thought that at last we had found the halfback pairing for England. They were both still raw but they looked so good.

The fact that neither of them is playing at halfback for England shouldn't mean that we end up playing Sinfield and Chase there though. McBanana should choose the best English halfbacks, with a reserve, and stick with them for a while. Brough may be off form at the moment but that doesn't mean that given the opportunity to play with the team again he won't play much better than he did on Wednesday. Even Robes looked half the player he usually is so I think something more was off kilter on Wednesday than simply a question of playing staff.

The coach maybe? The limited preparation time? Being shoe-horned between two Superleague matches? Inexperience in playing together as a team?

McBanana is a tool with a record of failure as a coach. We don't need a full time England coach and we certainly dont need a guy who fell flat on his face at Bradford. Getting someone who looks like they have the ability to mould a team together to do the job part time like the Aussies do would be my choice , pains me to say it but at least the Ape at Wigoon would have them fired up.

I can only think that there must have been nobody else available because otherwise it would be a case of only in rugby league would the national coach have the dubious record of his one experience in coaching being to take his club further down the ladder.


I agree. However, would any Wigan players at all have played if he'd been the coach?!

Smith wanted to continue part time but the fools at the RFL wanted someone full tim (what a joke). They picked McBanana one week before bradford sacked him for appalling results (what an even bigger joke).

They may as well given it to Goulding or Goodway.

I listened to McBanana at the wire v hull game and what a smug **** he came accross as.
He obviously can't believe his luck when he was so close to being unemployed.

And who was that on the bench with him? None other than Lowes - another poor excuse as a coach.

I've deleted some more bickering posts, let the last one by St Helens RLFC be the end of it in regard to the bickering. If you've a point to make, make it in regard to his comment, any more pathetic bickering WILL be deleted.

Why is the changing form of Wilkin, and my changing opinion based upon that change of form, a u-turn? Is Wilkin's form not allowed to change? Am I not allowed to respond to that change in form? Does everyone have static opinions on here regardless of what takes place in the world around them?

Your comment was childish. Challenging me wasn't but the way you approached it most definitely was. In fact, the rest of the post I am replying to now is equally childish and so I am not going to dignify it with a direct reply.

You need to grow up.