Think this will be a close one and our best chance of a victory over them however slim that chance is. The Aussies will get better as the tournament goes on but could be got at in the first game away from Sydney.

Aus by 8.

The first twenty will be key. If we start poorly you fear for us but if we can get some confidence and maybe a slender lead we can hopefully stick with it.

I'll go-

Australia 30

England 22

Probably Australia by 12.

I'd love it if we beat them though. Love it!

A little OT here but I am annoyed that we always seem to get Australia in the first game. Would an unpredictable game against New Zealand with the loser likely to play Australia in the semi be a better option?

I have a feeling we could do well but maybe just come short at the end. Australia by 14 points (24-10 maybe).

I would rather us not win strangely enough, I think we need to show the world we are better than NZ and we are only likely to get the chance to prove that if we lose the opener.

I expect this to be a closer one, Austrailia most likely will win by less than 10 points. I’m backing England with the handicap on offer from the bookies.

England beating New Zealand in the final would be awesome. If we do beat Austrailia on Friday, they’re far from guaranteed getting to the final.

And 1992 in OZ I was their

What's the Australian team likely to look like?

They have pretty much named it

Slater
Gagai
Chambers
Dugan
Holmes
Morgan
Cronk
Woods
Smith (c)
Klemmer
Cordner (vc)
Gillett
Trbojievic

Graham
McLean
McGuire
Frizell

We've named ours apparently (according to a facebook page)

Lomax gets the nod at fullback with Bateman at left centre and the rest of the starting 13 as you'd expect (Lomax the only change from the warm up game).

The bench looks to be made up of T Burgess, Walmsley, Heighington and Roby.

I'd have gone Currie for Heighington but I get why he's picked him given his experience.

Lomax? What

Brown ahead of Williams and Heighington over McMeeken are shocking selections.

He's not saying Brown ahead of Williams is he? Halves were Widdop and Gale in the friendly