BELIEF!

For me it showed in for a long long time, that the 17 players out there yesteday truly believed they could beat Australia. In years gone by when we got the penalty in the opening minutes we would have taken the two points. But we ook the tap and scored. Last year a similar thing happened, we took the two and got comfortably beaten.

Ryans Hall two tries summed it up, before our wingers would have tried stepped inside and got tackled. Hall and had no right to score those tries, but he just put his foot down and went for it. He outplayed both Darius Boyd and the worlds best player to score two wondeful tries.

Just shows how much belief has an influence on a game.

Was a great effort yesterday from the lads and hope they can carry it on.

Hardly a comforting thought! On your basis, they had belief, apparently played well yet never remotely looked like winning after the opening minutes. So, presumbly next time the play Oz they will have no belief. What will they fall back on then? Or hace you now written them off?

Why do u have to be so negative we should just get out and go and support them no matter what like the Rugby union and football do. I thought they was much improved and really do now believe in there selfs. IMO we are getting closer to them.

I did get out and support them, as I have many many times over the years unlike many on here. I am not deluded though. I know what I saw and I know what I have seen in previous series. Nothing I saw yesterday comforted me into believing we are at the dawn of a brave new world order.

It used to be that we'd win the first of a 3 game series against the Aussies and everyone would get carried away with it, go on about how we'd proved that no gap exists/we can beat them etc etc.

Now "only" losing by 16 points seems to have brought on the same delusion.

I don't think yesterday's result will make us believe any less if anything it should encourage us.
Yes i know australia were not at there best but england have room to improve so get behind them at the kc next weekend.

We had a few crucial decisons go against us PLUS had our best prop and our best second rower out for the matchand our cpatain should never have come back on. Would love to have known the result if Australia lost Scott, Gallen and Thaiday.

Plus throw into the fact how our young many of our players are. Briscoe, Hall Tomkins Reed etc. Australia are still better than us at the moment, but the gap isn't as big as most make out and the team did a lot yesterday when a lot of things went against them, injuries, wrong decisons etc.

The point of the thread is that it looks like we have finally oversome the biggest hurdle that has stopped us beating OZ for so long. Belief.

We look more likely to win the 4N than New Zealand looked like winning the WC in 08

England should have won yesterday, they matched the Aussies all over the park, and we let them get away with it again.

The biggest hurdle is an insufficient number of quality players. It's very simple. To dress it up as belief is an admission of that. If we had sufficient quality players do you really think belief would be an issue? They'd know they were better, just as Oz currently do.

I think this issue is slowly been addressed, with the academy products coming through, although we probably won't be able to receive the benefits for another couple of years. But finally clubs are producing academy products, whereas before you could name the exact GB line-up seven years running.

I'm not getting carried away, Australia are still the best side and better than us. But we are FINALLY heading in the right direction.

Ok so we may have gone backwards from the days of winning the first test yes but now we need to improve and yesterday was improvement on what we have seen for the last few years. Whats the point in pulling them to pieces. We have to start some were again and yesterday was not to bad at all

We've been heading in the right direction since 1980 but they've been heading that way too for most of that time. I don't think we are really any closer than we were in, say, 1982. A golden generation by recent British standards failed to beat them in the early '90s. I don't see this group seriously challenging them, even though Oz aren't as good a team as they were.

I've hardly pulled them to pieces.

I've seen and heard all before about how we are finally closing the gap, it will take a hell of a lot more than yesterday's performance before I start believing it is true.

The truth is we will never be able to compete with the Aussies over a series of matches until our players are exposed to higher level of competition week in, week out and we then have the improved intensity, decision-making and structure in the players who shine that will come that improvement.

I think we will challenge them. Hopefully wewill beat NZ and used this game as motivation for the final. think we've got to remember a lot of our players are very very young and playing against a very experienced Australia team whose backbone Slater, Lockyer Thurston & Smith have played together for years.

On another note the game was a superb spectacle yesterday and any neutrals were may have watched that will have been impressed.

When you say neutrals, I assume you are referring to non-rugby people. If so, I think you under-estimate how negatively the casual spectator sees 5 drives and a kick to be. They can never understand why players seemingly run straight into the defenders rather than evade them. They just see it as silly and pointless.
(NB Even I did for large parts of yesterday as there did not seem to be the usual venom and intensity of a Test match).