Have you not been watching the International game for long?

Whilst it was dour, the result was in the balance nearly to the end & had Graham managed to fall on the ball correctly it could have been a draw.

Many people including myself have lamented the chasm between the two hemispheres, well now it’s down to inches.

Shameful is getting tonked by thirty plus points not seven.

You are not comparing like with like. IMO the Australian teams that best us by big points would have beaten yesterday's rabble by even more.

You are not comparing like with like. IMO the Australian teams that best us by big points would have beaten yesterday's rabble by even more.

You are being very unfair towards the England team to call them rabble.

Sure the Aussies of a few years ago would have put the cleaners through both those teams, but that lot are on the wane or have retired & that’s why N.Z. are currently No 1.

We can only play what’s in front of us & we played like an NRL team, rather than the flamboyant S.L style. Yes it was scrappy but if we want to be top dogs we have to play to their tried & tested methods.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see England blow everyone away playing free-flowing rugby, of course it would, but history shows it’s just a pipedream.

Australia won the World Cup so they are No1 not NZ

No, they're World Champions while New Zealand are the No1 ranked team in the World

back on topic,

Ridiculous premise for a thread topic

Why? There are many precedents in sport eg Steve McLaren at Newcastle United.

What a stupid troll you are, grow up.

Posters like you are the reason very few people can be bothered with the VT these days.

For those who understand the game (you're not included) Saturday was a decent but not exceptional old fashioned test, no team on top, defences working hard, no blow out score line - it's actually what most fans want. Clearly you've been brought up on the touch and pass of SL so you wouldn't know a tough game if you saw one.

Truth is that no matter how the game had ended up you'd be sniping because that's how you get your kick. See Dally template below.

44 NZ V 42 ENG: Dally, "pathetic game, no defence Australia would have killed them"

44 NZ V 0 ENG: Dally, "pathetic game, England disgrace against 2nd string NZ team - Aussies would have put a 100 past both""

0 NZ V 44 ENG: Dally, "pathetic game, how can you be proud of beating a third string NZ team, Aussies would have got a 100"

and you go on and on and on.

I was brought up well before SL and I like tough defensive games. The problem with Saturday was lack of commitment to winning or even trying to. Even Brian Noble who talks up the games said half way through the first half it needed someone to rip in with the ball or a big hit to ignite it. Sadly, it was just more of the same. That's what irks me. In 50 years of watching Test RL it WAS the most gutless performance I can recall.

I don't reckon this statement is correct at all. Yes, fans want to see a tough close fought fixture, i can think of many low scoring thrillers, but the game on saturday was as turgid an affair as i personally have seen in a long long time at what is supposed to be the pinnacle of the game. The skill levels were poor, creativity non existant, and the game was stop start, it had no flow at all. If that is what you want to see, then fair enough but i'd wager a high percentage of the 45k who saw the game live in the stadium would have said they were very disappointed with what they saw, in what was a great missed opportunity to showcase our sport on a national level.