There is literally NO silver lining that a rugby league fan can't find a dark cloud to cover.

Well apart from playing a B team we certainly provided entertainment and if we give more players a chance we might see a few more stars shine. That is one of the reasons I like watching the Raiders, they give a couple of Brits the chance and they have proven their worth. The NRL needs to give the international game more air to breath it cannot depend on the state of origin to grow the game overseas

So what are you actually saying? Are you saying we played the strongest NZ team? Really?

Quote Sheldon="Sheldon"Bromwich is injured. Foran injured. Johnson struggling with hamstring injuries. Nightingale is doing well? Apart from losing his wing spot. So we’ve established New Zealand players are more injury prone.'" Played 12 games - out of 15 games https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/telstr ... ghtingale/ Are you saying all the other NZ players have played 100 % ?

Quote Sheldon="Sheldon"Bromwich is injured. Foran injured. Johnson struggling with hamstring injuries. Nightingale is doing well? Apart from losing his wing spot. So we’ve established New Zealand players are more injury prone.'" Played 12 games - out of 15 games https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/telstr ... ghtingale/ Are you saying all the other NZ players have played 100 % ?

Of course not, Johnson, RTS could have been needled up and forced to play.

Bromwich and Foran could have had there form totally ignored and put a cast or moon boat on to play.

In that case, you clearly haven’t watched much rugby this season. Who’s the best stand off at saints then?

Quote Mash Butty="Mash Butty"Played 12 games - out of 15 games https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/telstr ... ghtingale/ Are you saying all the other NZ players have played 100 % ?'" And the last 2 games he lost his wing spot to Mann. You think he’s been in good form? And learn how to read the stats sheet, he’s played all 14 games this year, scoring 1 try.

Quote Mash Butty="Mash Butty"Played 12 games - out of 15 games https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/telstr ... ghtingale/ Are you saying all the other NZ players have played 100 % ?'" And the last 2 games he lost his wing spot to Mann. You think he’s been in good form? And learn how to read the stats sheet, he’s played all 14 games this year, scoring 1 try.

It wasn't the strongest NZ team England have played, but England were also missing Watkins, Gale, Williams, George Burgess, Currie, McMeekan and Hodgson, injuries are no excuse

This isn't intended as a dig, but it be intrigued to know which 7 players that played tonight would be replaced by the 7 you have named?

Enjoyed that. My takeaways

This should be SOLs last game for England, too fast a game for him.

Conor shows what he can do when focusing on playing rugby

Makinson proves he’s the most underrated player in SL.

We need to find a right centre.

We have some great great players - whitehead, Roby, Graham all great.

Looking forward to the tri-series.

Bateman could play there. Ben Currie can play at Loose if he ever gets himself fit. Bennett clearly likes him as he played more minutes for England last season than he did for Wire. Stevie Ward can play Loose if he ever... see a theme? You can also play Sam Burgess there and put Bateman in second row.

Bateman isn’t a centre and is wasted at centre. He’s a cracking backrower.

Connor was good, should have that SO spot now.

Makinson and Charnley as well as McGillvary on the right wing shows how good we are there.

At right centre you could play Watkins Makinson or Charnley all have centre attributes (or play centre)

I’d like to see Clark in the squad in the Autumn, he’s been Wire’s best player this season as well as Ratchford. Give Roby a rest or have both of them on late in second “stanzas”.

Ratchford was okay at FB last night, very elusive and came into the line well. Just didn’t find the passes too well. He’s been class this season though so give him another shot and I think he could make that his own too.

Everyone else did their jobs well, Sam and Graham took some carries in didn’t they?

Percival is a cracking player but at that level is very weak. Gets thrown around like a rag doll a bit and was flying into their defensive line but stopping dead into the tackles (Bateman is the same when he plays at centre for England but then bizarrely when he’s in the back row or like last night at dummy half he doesn’t - is it something to do with the pace of the runs at centre?). I’ve seen more leg muscles on a teenager. Needs to get more calories in him and heavier weights in the gym.

Top game though that and really enjoyed it. 19320 in attendance, that’s more than all but Odsall, the DW and the KCom hold and you wouldn’t have got much more at those grounds. And you wouldn’t have got that many in NZ. So a success all round!