fair enough Dally, but I like to look at the positives.

NZ were obviously fired up, putting in the shots in front of the home crowd, that was always to be expected.

And I thought NRL refs had sped up the play-the-ball?? There are specific skills and technique to slowing down the tackle but all we saw from NZ was messing about on the floor and loads of pushing & shoving at the ptb. Found the ref's lack of control there frustrating.

Too much dropped ball and some weak defence from England, but when we got a roll-on we looked dangerous. Unfortunately we failed to control the ruck and let NZ get roll after roll at pace and pin us back in the first half.

Widdop too weak at full-back. He showed it against the Maori; when anyone of any size breaks he seems to just throw himself at their legs and hope for the best - Sam at least has great tackling technique and can bring anyone down.

There's definitely potential; cut out the errors and slow the ruck and we've got a chance. Let them come at us on a roll and we'll be annihilated.

I thought Archer had a game again, surely this bloke has pictures of the ref's boss in a compromising position with an animal

Nearly finished watching the game. Absolutely no refereeing inclination either way so far. I had a look at the final penalty counts and they reflect my observation. Pretty much what I suspected.

I'm not going to pay attention to any more cries of uneven refereeing. I should've learnt that after posters still tried to make ref excuses after the Kangaroos pasted England in the final last year. To those who want to whinge, get a grip.

On the team performances. England can do some good things when they get on a roll, but there's just not enough threat across the park to create worries for Test standard defence. The forwards at parity with their opposition (which they failed to reach tonight) isn't good enough. They need to dominate for most of the game for any chance of an English win. I simply can't see this happening against either New Zealand or Australia. There's quite a few good, tough players in the pack, some very good, but they're essentially overrated by their fans.

I expect a much better performance next week, this was a wake-up call that they shouldn't have needed. But a win is hard to see.

The Kiwis, if they improve throughout the tournament like usual, will be very tough to beat. They just looked way more organised and far better equipped across the park. You can see their ideas, confidence and motivation (in contrast to England). The timing is still out, but if it clicks...damn.

More than ever i'm not willing a complete performance from Australia tomorrow. I could be wrong, but I don't expect PNG to be a good litmus test and if we don't thrash them, i'll be a little bit concerned all week.

What was Luke's problem? Kept being right dirty. Had a go at the defenders nearly everytime he played the ball, and kept putting in cheap efforts in the tackle, as well as a clear trip on Ellis in the 42nd minute.