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.

Ive said all along should have started Ablett in the centre. Widdop is not going to be match fit now to play 80 mins and he would need to be aainst NZ. Steve Mac as got it all wrong but this time next week he will be spouting out what we need to do next time we compete & come up against the worlds best......

Ablett has his critics but things you can never label him with is bad defence and giving less than100% plus he's a bit of a sh*thouse and that could help us

I think we will see more of the dark side of Rangi Chase next week when the Kiwis start winding him up leaving a slow distribution from Sinfield to the centres.
Our pack should hold there own, but I reckon we will be caught out wide.
For me MOM last night was James Graham lots of metres, lots of tackles and a passing game to trouble the opposition.
My expectation is that it will be a high intensity game with England competing very well, Rangi Chase will decide who wins this game. He needs to bring his 2nd half performance against Fiji to the table in the first half next week, if he fails its bye bye England.
Will we ever have a decent set of half backs playing for England?

Graham Roby G.Burgess
S.Burgess Westwood
O'loughlin

Very talented and very physical pack.

Definitely the key to success

Graham Roby S.Burgess
Ferres Westwood
O'loughlin

George on the bench.

Yes but the ease with which they got into try scoring positions and then fluffed it was terrifying. They could easily have scored 4 tries. Now in all probability NZ or Australia would have more possession against us and not miss those sort of chances. So, you soon start to think 1 try and 4 chances could turn into 9 of 10 actual tries. That's the worry for me.

Is the ref next week an Aussie? Could be our best hope - you can be sure the high and mighty of the NRL will want England rather than NZ to face their beloved "champs" in the final!

I can see where your coming from here, but, Ozzie refs have been diabolical for us as long as I can remember (and that is back to the 1950's). Mind you Perenara is a shocker as far as England is concerned as well.'They' never give us anything.

Southern Hemisphere teams aways seem to get the decisions

I can guarantee in the first 5 mins nz will get a penalty for a phantom technical offence giving them good early position. Watch out for it, guarantee it happens.

Not just Aussies who have the rose tinted glasses on. We were at Limerick last week and Bentham CANED Ireland, making the game even more one-sided than it needed to be. I think Klein has been the same at least for the NZ v PNG and England v France matches.
On the other side of the coin I thought Ben Cummings did a fair job for Scotland v NZ.

Anyone who thinks we should drop one of our halves now is crazy. You can't build a partnership for four weeks then just abandon it. If McNamara was serious about Widdop playing, he should have gave him some more game time during the group stage.

I would swap McIllorum for Burrow and maybe get rid of Farrell from the 17.

For me - our biggest problem is intensity. Against Italy, Fiji and France England have allowed themselves to be drawn back to the level of their opposition - their line speed in defence and pace in attack is shocking. Not to mention disrespect of possession.

Chase did play poorly against France but he was the man against Fiji.

My 17 v NZ:

Backs - the same (maybe Briscoe in for Charnley - not too fussed)
Forwards
Hill, Roby, Graham, S Burgess, Ferres, O'Loughlin
Bench
Burrow, G Burgess, Westwood, Mossop

Scotland had as many good positions v NZ as France had v England, you could make exactly the same arguement about NZ.

I saw NZ live on Friday night and I am certain that England can beat them. Of course if either side doesn't perform they will lose, but if they both turn up I see it as a 50/50 call. The match is unlikely to be decided by the forwards (unless Roby or Luke produce some individuasl brilliance). I think NZ have a pace advantage in the backs but the England outside backs are physically much bigger, if England can exploit that advantage that is how they will win.

England's left edge has been very good this toutnament, I thought that was stifled last night by playing Surgess there, Chase, Cudjoe and Hall need good ball not Sam taking the ball up. Ferres should be at Left Second Row, Farrell and Ablett are options that would compliment that edge, Sam Burgess is a great player, but the wrong player on that edge. I think Farrell yed his way past Ablett in the last two games, not that Ablett has done anything wrong.

On the other side I think Westwood needs to be told not to come inside too much on defence, the problems around Sinfield and Watkins are coming from Westwood not drifting leaving too much space for the others to fill, that is a minor adjustment.

England must also resist overplaying James Graham, with a prop rotation of Surgess, Gurgess, Hill and Graham, there is no need for anyone to play 60+ minutes, I am sure they will all want to, but they should not.

Burrow changed the Fiji game, can't believe he was left out v France.

So for me England's 17 should be:

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Cudjoe
Hall
Chase
Sinfield
Hill
Roby
S Burgess
Westwood
Ferres
O'Loughlin

Graham
G Burgess
Farrell
Burrow