I was so gutted it has taken me until now to log on. The best performance since Melbourne in 92. Burgess absolutely immense. Sinfield's best game for GB/England & unfair to bag him when others made mistakes that led to NZ tries. I wasn't impressed by Edwards' monotone ramblings but still preferable to Davies. How Edwards can witness a game like that & still turn up to coach yawnion defies belief. At least I will be able to go to the final & enjoy it without feeling sick with nerves all week.
I'm not MacNamara's biggest fan but I could have few complaints if they offered him a new contract after that. Not that I expect much competition, especially if it's a full time role.

I agree with all that tigertot .What a fantastic game,Sam Burgess? You can't say enough superlatives about him.Also about Sinfield,he threw 2 excellent passes for 2 England tries,it would be wrong to blame him

Thank God for some sense!

We have improved since the last world cup I am just unsure how much of that is down to McNamara. It helps we have more players playing in the NRL week in week out for a start.

Agreed. Burgess and Graham were outstanding. He'll be offered a new contract because there's nobody else of the required calibre who wants the job full time. It was a great effort yesterday. People can criticise his management of the squad and the press conference where he walked out was poor, but it is the responsibility of the players to behave.

Overall, though we lost to both Australia (comfortably) and New Zealand (narrowly). The halves have been poor and although he played better yesterday Sinfield has not demonstrated he should have been picked above Brough. His kicking game yesterday was shocking and the conversion he missed was regulation. There was no need to dart out to Johnson. Widdop was a massive improvement on Chase and it should have been Brough/Widdop from the start.

No one can say Brough would have played better, he never got the chance and we will never know how he would have done he may have been so far out of his depth, as been mentioned on another thread he is still looking for that dummy RTS sold him over a week ago.

He plays for scotland, we moan it ruining the game that players switch nationalties then we moan when we cant get a scot to play for us, he was a scot in the 2008 WC and he is in the 2013 WC no point going over it again and again.

I think the future england HB partnership should be based around Widdup hes played what 40-60 mins of the WC before playing against NZ and didnt look out of place one bit, that is my biggest nark with McBanana of him sticking with chase for so long, our previous games where dire and boring, yeah we won them but they weren't spectacles to please the eye. Struggle to think of a good partner but least there is time to look at other options, if eastmond does get back into RL then I think he maybe the missing link or they look at moving tomkins there, much as I dont like him i think he is a better SO/SH than a FB.

I think the halves and hooker face the biggest challenge stepping up from SL to International level. Brough is a brilliant player in SL but I'm not sure that his game would have stood up to the additional pressures of playing Aus or NZ. They have to do everything that bit quicker and more precise, less thinking time, fewer gaps to run through. Any half back that hasn't played in the NRL is going to struggle at that level.

Brough looked pretty good against New Zealand when I saw him.

I didn't think Brough was anything special before the world cup and maintain that opinion. I thought Sinfield played well apart from maybe at the very end of the game and the conversion miss but it's too easy to criticise from an armchair, on the field he created 2 of our tries. Seeing Widdop play I wonder if sticking with Chase was a mistake.

It's unfair to judge him against my couple of appearances at tag rugby.

Brough is the most over rated player in SL imo.

Yes he's a good player, but if he were half as good as some people seem to think he is, he'd be an England regular. The two muppets on Sky started the campaign for self publicity it like the Briers one and suddenly lots of people are banging the drum as though he were a world beater. You couldn't make it up!

Quite, did you manage two games? I thought you hobbled off after one?

IMO Brough’s one of those players who’s happiest when he’s getting the attention and can be number one. He’s had a lot of clubs which suggests he can take his bat home if he doesn’t feel the love. Is he good enough to warrant that at International level? He’s not exactly the next Andy Gregory is he? I think he’s overrated by many.