I think it was mainly because of the style introduced by Maguire and the injury to Roberts. It made sense given Tomkins attributes and the fact that we had Deacon and Leuluai. When he did defend in the line he was always scrappy and tenacious often making several tackles in a row from marker, I think he'd be ok but don't see the point in splitting up a half back pairing who looked promising. Can't we have some consistency for once?

I don't see Whitehead as the great white hope everyone else does either. He's the worst of the lot defencively and hasn't had much experience at all in big games. The main problem against Samoa was the ball retention and penalties in the first half. England completed more than 90% of their sets in the 2nd half but the damage had been done in having to defend 50 more tackles in the first half so they're obviously going to be more tired.

What we need to do is pressure the kicker. Hill did it well and O'Loughlin will too but others need to step up. Same with the line speed and aggression in defence.

The only change I'd consider is starting Ferres. He is bigger than Farrell and Farrell did seem to struggle to impose himself in defence. Maybe put Whitehead on the bench but I think Farrell deserves the chance. Joel was fine, found the floor in attack and slowed them down without the ball.

If we lose this I don't think we'll make the final so I think the best thing to do is stick with the players who've played, barring O'Loughlin, and hope they've blown the cobwebs away and are ready to finally beat australia again.

Am I right in thinking that shows no viewers whatsoever for Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth? Surely that can't be correct?

Won't be many when they publish the adjusted figures later in the month.......NRL and even origin struggles in SA and WA......Victoria might have a few but not many.

Agreed hock would be the sort of player you wouldn't want around on a tour

So all that development money and virtually zero interest in the sport in Victoria?

The Melbourne Storm is your blueprint for London!!

I said "virtually zero interest in Victoria" where exactly? I said "not too many".......
They delivered 15% of the State of Origin III Viewing figures in 2014.....that's up from less than 4% just 10 years ago. Melbourne's sporting public are "warming" to league.....10 years ago they averaged 9k at best, now it's 15k...they rank 8th of the 16 NRL teams in attendances.

Yep.
Planting a team full of journeymen aussies transplanted into the top tier, sticking posts in the ground and announcing a KO off time is what the RFL thought would work...as did owners from Branson to Hughes.......the safety of franchises enabled hughes to spend cash on development, but the reality is, whilst he was prepared to plough over 2 million a year into the club, the SL/RFL should have matched him......marketing ANYTHING in London costs a heap more money and a lot more resource.....but we were given the same cash as clubs with a 100+ year head start and heritage......And believe me, with the best will in the world, not having a top tier RL club for kids to aspire to in London is going to decimate any chances of developing future stars of the game from the capital.