Maybe Bateman might end up not being big enough to play 2nd row at this level....but I'd rather try it first than just dismiss it without giving him the opportunity.

Nicky - Whitehead is playing more centrally than Bateman, and making a shedload more tackles. If you're going to try to use stats then at least be fair. Bateman's on line defence is poor IMO, but he may improve as he's not used to defending as wide as he is for England.

I understand your point but Bateman has been running into the teeth of the defence throughout both games. It's not like he's been making easy metres with 50 metre line breaks so I think the comparison is a valid one. The point re: defence is a fair one but to level this up Whitehead has given away some stupid and costly penalties.

One position in side?

Compare him to Currie then he's if needs be and leave Bateman out of the debate. He's been dreadful with ball in hand so far. His work rate with the ball is poor. I'm judging Whitehead against his billing. I keep getting told he's one of the best in the NRL and that's lads like Bateman, Currie, Farrell etc aren't in his class, so if that's the case I expect contributions in both attack and defence. I'm seeing lads like Frizzel, Gillet, Wade Graham, Currie, M'au etc do that so I don't think I'm expecting too much.

Exactly.

Bateman has been getting bashed for not passing to Hall and constantly running in side. It's because he's a back rower and he's playing like one.

hmmmm, just trying to think who we can give you next time around, if we give you Craig Bellamy will you still bitch & moan?

You may be a WUM but you're right on that. We are nowhere near Australia. Our best chance to beat them in this WC was the first game while they were scratchy. We have no chance if we meet them in the final, although I think we'll lose to NZ in the semis.

You might be right but lets get to the semis first then we can hope

Roby has to play 9 in the bigger games.
His reading of the game, ability to scoot, distribution and defence are far superior to anything we saw on Saturday and that was against lesser opposition.
Against Aus, our offence was far sharper with Roby on the pitch.

Although Widdop looks good, our halves are just not creating anything and if Bennett wanted a look at Williams, why did he not start the game ?

Don't want any of them, I want an English coach and English players thanks

I’m no fan of McNamara, but to be fair to him he got the best out of the England players at this level. Bennett’s coaching record is not in question, but maybe he just can’t coach an English team with backgrounds in this league. Probably why he picks NRL players over talented SL players, he can get them to execute his game plan better.