I know theres one rather than two officials in the middle but monitoring of the ruck should still be better than what weve seen in the last two England games. The interference from Lebanon was blatant and would surely have resulted in yellow cards if done in SL.

I think Thaler's refereeing highlights a big reason why we are behind the NRL. The aussie/NZ refs only give an infringement if its blatant or definitely affects the game, whereas ours just use the rulebook and no judgement. This results in our games being interrupted far more frequently, and hence our players not being used to the long 20 minute penalty free periods that have occurred in some of the games being officiated by their antipodean colleagues. If theres one thing the RFL need to take away from this tournament its to stop our refs being petty and realising that their over enthusiastic whistle blowing is probably the biggest factor holding the British game back. Our players never develop the physical or mental fitness required to compete at the top level because of the difference in the stoppages of play.

Interviewing Bennett is hard work. Jeez wouldn't like that job.

Bennett is an .

Hahaha Bennett's interview was class. He treats the media with equal contempt.

Seen the replays, Farrah shoves his forearm in McGillvarys mouth and claims he's been bitten. D1ck!

Lebanon have plenty to build on - pity they only have 2 more games in this WC and the full side won't get back together for another 4 years.

Plenty has already been said about Heighington not adding much to the team but I also don't think Hill is adding much either. He's a better player than what he's showing. Taylor needs to be given a chance, and either Bateman needs to be moved to his proper position or McMeeken given a run.
Taylor and McMeeken both great players who must be wondering what it's going to take for them to get a game. Taylor has been a better player than Hill this year and McMeeken is better than Currie.

Lebanon's disruption of the ruck was blatant throughout and was still not penalised. Presumably the style of refereeing has been dictated by the NRL but for me that was why the game was such a poor spectacle and it kind of destroys the myth that NRL rucks are far cleaner than those in SL.

[sizeATTENTION MODS !!!!!!!!
[/size
[sizeCan we please do something about this Downo character trolling every England match thread with his 'anti-english' crap, we had last week's locked and this is gonna go the same way, i want to read and post about how the England team played not have to scroll through pages of this idiot slagging everything English off and people who cannot resist replying to him, how hard would it be to remove him from the thread/board or just delete his stuff ???

Sorry but it's really really annoying and frustrating !!!!!![/size

Thought it was a pretty mundane performance, whether that was to save energy and use minimum effort to get the win i dont know but i would have liked to see us put them to the sword a bit more.

Again i thought Gale was non existent and i would have expected him to show up more against weaker opposition but he didn't, it's a shame cos i wanna see the Luke Gale that's been ripping Super league up all year do that on the world stage but it ain't happening.

We need a bit more aggression down the middle i think as we aren't really picking up any momentum on our plays, we got the win but i doubt Aus, NZ or even PNG will be worried by what they saw.

McMeekan deserves a run out.

For me Hodgson is one of the most overrated players I have ever seen as a 9. It looks like he didn't play as a 9 when he was a kid but I'm not sure whether he did or he didn't, he actually kills England's speed around the ruck with his refusal to pass from the floor.

Last week against Aus I thought Roby was hurting them around the middle with quick ball to the forwards who were ghosting past the markers. Hodgson brings the defence up and the markers into play by the time the forward gets the ball.

It's shocking 9 play and I'm convinced Bennett only favours him because he doesn't see the others play a lot. I'd like to hear his thoughts if he was offered the chance to sign Hodgson for the Broncos, I imagine he wouldn't be too much of a fan then.

If Josh Hodgson carries on stealing the halfbacks space by stepping out of dummy half and giving them zero space or time to make the plays then we're going absolutely nowhere.

Gale has struggled but he along with Widdop, Williams and Brown, Matty Smith etc before them, are getting rushed by the defence constantly because the ball to them is so slow.

James Roby must start (which I know he won't) or the games up.

Why, you cad!!!