I was v. disappointed in our performance at first, but watching Australia/NZ now, I've brightened up a bit.

There isn't a lot between these three sides in this year's comp, but we really need to sharpen up, especially with ball retention and ruck defence. That will come with game time but we haven't got that.

Smith and Widdop are a great 6/7 combo for me, their respective games/styles complement each other perfectly, and I thought both played well. Clark had the odd magic moment, S. Tomkins looked bright, and as ever, the Burgess brothers/Graham/Hill made good yards.

A rampaging England pack assumes we get parity or more of the ball. When Oz are up for it I've seen them starve the opposition of the ball. If they retain the ball they'll totally humiliate our big front rowers and leave them gasping for air.

If we play with our heads there is no reason the above should happen. This is not a vintage Aussie side, the key for us is ball retention, not giving away silly penalties and a solid kicking game. If we can achieve all that we have a chance - slim I would agree but a chance of turning them over

Scott and Hoffman were really quite awfull against New Zealand, you're doing the English players a real disservice to suggest that they're so inferior to this current Australian back row.

I'm not suggesting that Farrell and Tomkins are the best back row pairing we've ever seen but they certainly have a lot to offer going forward and in Farrell case at least his defensive game is superb.

What did Bird do that was so much better than Westerman?
Bird gave at least 2 midfield penalties away and got brutalised on a couple of occasions when trying to effect a tackle. On the other hand Westerman made some hard yards through the middle and was close to being at the top of the tackle count.

Some on here are still suffering from an inferiority complex where Australia are concerned, while there's been solid justification in the past I simply don't see the reason for it with this version of Australia.

You are right in what you say but its also quite understandable and good in a way that people are not getting too carried away with what looks to be a slightly ajar door that the Aussies have left open.

The very few times in the past 30 years i have been watching RL this has happened we have had it slammed in our faces at quite force.They will be smarting at the defeat at the weekend and the prospect of being the set of players to lose out to us and miss a final in a million years will be enough to ensure they are at it this week.

Still plenty enough talent to beat us in this Aussie side.we will have to be at our very best,nothing less and hope things go our way to get the win.

Agree with those last two posts.