I think there are a lot of very harsh comments on here. We are all well aware of the error count, if we do the same next week it will be a real struggle against Tonga, the same in the final and we’ll loose by plenty.

There were a lot of positives in that game though. PNG were never a threat, I don’t think we were ever at risk of loosing which given the completion rate has to been seen as a positive.

The real key is do we have a composed and relatively error free performance in us when it matters.

More than ever in terms of skill, strength, size and speed I believe we are a match for Australia the difference in mental. Do we have the belief and concentration level to put in an 80 minute performance? That bit I’m not sure of.

Brown Gale and Hodgson are not a match for Cronk Morgan and Smith, by a long long shot!

When Bennett does his analysis of the game he'll be thinking why did our right edge come up with 4 tries and our left edge only 2. Well Wayne that's what happens when you play without recognised specialists in their right position. Its noticeable that the two tries on the left were created by Widdop and not Bateman who should be nowhere near the team.

It annoyed me the BBC pundits banging on about "we must cut out those errors against Australia"; I don't think that performance today would beat Tonga. We had easy forward dominance (but we'll be coming up against the best forward in the world next week), and yet still made a sackful of errors. Widdop looked all class again at full-back, and McGillvary was very good too, but still a very disappointing showing.

As for the much-criticised Gale and Bateman: I've always been of the view with Gale, give him a few more games to settle himself in, but now I am starting to wonder whether he does have it in him to be a top-class international half. I'm not saying he can't do it, or that he should be dropped at this late stage, but he has these two (hopefully!) games left in which it prove himself. To his credit, the one thing he didn't do was "go missing", he wanted the ball and saw plenty of it, but was sacked far too often, especially on that break with Bateman and Hall well-placed outside him. Bateman: another so-so game, appeared to make decent metres as usual. When he did provide Hall with a decent pass, he dropped a sitter. Roby v Hodgson: I did mention Hodgson's kicking game out of dummy half, and it won us an early 40/20, but Roby was again much more effective.

The Tonga coach will be thinking, we can beat this lot.

Indeed, you have to feel sorry for Ryan Hall, he's hardly getting a sniff in offence.
Bateman just isn't a centre and never will be.

Their Australian counterparts are without doubt better players. The biggest single reason for this is their ability to perform when it matters. They make the right decisions and come up with far fewer errors.

This is a mental thing. Our players have a very good skill set and are fantastic athletes, we need to learn to stay composed and maintain concentration for 80 mins. IF we can do that we have every chance

whitehead has been the invisible man!

but even this super star sam burgess has not had a decent game for england since the last world cup

3 or 4 players can hold there head high right now.. they rest need to up their game asap

then again...we are still on track and still in with a chance of being world champs!

He should be nowhere near the centre. He's eating up the ground like a good back rower should and is so much more comfortable defending further in.

To be fair if you dropped those three into any of the teams in the QFs they wouldn't be far off wining the whole competition

There were some very good individual performance. Mcgillvary was excellent again and linked up nicely with Watkins. Roby looked superb again when he came on. Widdop and O'Loughlin also were good. I don't know why there were so many simple errors today - maybe just a bit of complacency causing a lack of concentration at times. We defended well though and I never felt worried about the result. Hopefully we'll have enough to beat Tonga next week. Then we'll have to try and put together a one off great game to have any chance of beating Australia in the final. We need something like what NZ did in the 2008 final.

Burgess hasn't been the same since his return from Yawnion. In fact the error rate of all 3 brothers is horrendous and has certainly cost Souths a fair few games recently. None of them seem able to hold on to the ball, and when they do they often go for the offload that isn't on.

I'm starting to wonder if Sam's errors cost the team more than he offers. He's such a great player it's maddening to watch.

That sort of error and completion rate against Samoa or Australia will kill us. As Noble said, do it boring at times. Execution and possession.

I think having Sam Burgess at second row is also stopping Hall getting quality chances, that pass that ended up in touch would probably have gone to Hall's hands if it was Currie or SO'L, at second row (or Ward, Ferres or Farrell for that matter).

Also our halves seem much more willing miss pass behind Whitehead than Burgess, although that is not his fault.