God the Kiwis are going to wind up chase like their is no tomorrow at Wembley. This will end up with chase being a even bigger liability IMO.

Yep, If Luke doesn't succeed in removing his foot he may well be forced from the field for other reasons.

Hypothetical posturing:Had France kept out 2 soft tries ( Charnley 2 )and been able to finish off at least 2 of their attacking opportunities the score would have reflected a much closer game.theyre not a bad side but it also highlights Englands persistent flaw.inconsistency bring that game to NZ it'll be goodnight tater

So maybe this time Luke will be sent off?

Thought Chase was erratic but outside backs were good.
Ferris Hill and Graham were very good. Thought Sam Burgess was just going through motions.
If we can release our wingers I think we can trouble anyone.
Distribution is the issue. We actually looked better with Graham and stand off at times.

I should have been more clear.



Luke's a different player to the one who disgraced himself with the attempted leg break and a few cannon balls, he's showed a maturity this year.

France's forwards played pretty well. Their midfield defence was very good. Pelissier did some good things in attack, as did Casty and Fakir.

It was the French three quarter line, esp. after the loss of Duport, that let the team down.

If France would have played Aus or NZ they would have been made to look fools. France have the odd good player but we all know that they are most of the catalans squad but the good catalan players are imports like Menzies/Dureau & Webb.

Australia haven't conceded a try since, the opening game and NZ have looked like world champions in all their games, until they take the foot off the gas. But they are usually 40+ points up by then.

England have looked good in patches all tournament. I thought we played well against Ireland. Australia, good effort but we came up short against an under cooked Aussue team. Fiji we didn't look like scoring for 40 minutes.

We've been saying all tournament, if England put in an 80 minute performance they will do well. We've had four games now and still not done it. Now we're hoping it all comes together against the world champions?

Every man and his dog can see that our half backs are so poor in comparison, but Mcnamara is still goin to go with them in the semi. If Tomkins got injured in training this week I genuinely fear we could be nilled. He has offered more creativity than chase and Sinfield put together!

Chase and Sinfield will be dropped when hell freezes over, ok so it was cold in Wigan but the temperature was still in +

McIlorum and Roby are both 80 minute hookers IMO, it needs to be a choice of one, not both. I'd play Roby for the full match against NZ. McIlorum is a lot better than most on here give him credit for but he hasn't transferred his Wigan form to an England shirt.

The halves aren't working at all, and it's so bleeding obvious it's painful, especially as we all know he won't change them. This is our main problem. The passing across the line is slow and inaccurate. Tomkins and Watkins aren't getting their hands on the ball enough, we are trying too many inside balls and crash short balls to the forwards in good attacking positions when we should be utilising quick passing with dummy runners to find Tomkins out the back. Both wingers scored twice last night, but all of those tries were more down to shoddy defending on the edges from the French rather than clever attack opening them up. I really don't understand why Widdop wasn't given 80 minutes at 6 against either Ireland or Fiji, but McNamara's mind was made up 2 years ago than Sinfield and Chase were his halves.

We'll get well beaten next weekend, McNamara will step down as coach, Sinfield will retire from international RL, and English RL fans will once again have to think what might have been.

Players need dropping or just tactically replacing.

Burrow and Roby as hookers
Watkins needs dropping for Ablett, I'm not crazy Ablett is the best defensive centre we have I can forgo a little creativity to sure up defence.
Chase needs to go, Widdop to replace.
Charnley needs to stay in the side Briscoes WC is over.

France would have beaten Scotland comfortably. Respective scores of England and New Zealand not much different.