Quote: melman "He would still have had Sinfield on this tour, who has had very moderate to poor form for sometime along on this tour and, would have had him again as captain regardless.
No matter how he would have performed, Mac would have kept that unwarranted faith. Possibly with the excuse of retaining the settled side a descriptive he has used so often previously.'"
Since Sinfield retired from internationals before this tour you’ll never know for sure if McNamara would’ve selected him.
Quote: melman "Our team certainly did play so very well V NZ, they could even have won but for two coats of paint sending Widdops kicks the wrong side of the posts.
We did create chances, we did NOT take enough of them. '"
We bombed as many chances as the Kiwis. We’d have grabbed a draw at the end (a fair result) if we hadn’t needed to go for the win.
Quote: melman "
Watch the try that Oz scored V Samoa, five or six players touched the ball within 8 or so yards, before the try was scored, personally I would have been surprised if our lads would have been able to do so showing the same kind of composure that those Aussies HAD to, to make that score.'"
TBH you don’t know that for sure – I think the England side has improved quite a bit as the tour went on.
Quote: melman "
Sheen showed Mac how to handle players (yet again) and how to use subs, out of position ones at that, wisely and, to his teams best advantage. '"
Sheens has been lucky this time. Australia were well beaten in game 1 due to him not selecting enough props. They scraped a win in game 2 and came up against a Samoa that had shot their bolt the previous week in game 3. The Aussies improved as the tournament went on but I think you over rate them.