England v Exiles In-Running

Quote: The Chair Maker "The Exile players only had a couple of days to prepare this week, yet were more fluent in attack than the English lads who have been going into camp for a number of weeks now.

I think the England halves were a complete failure, and i think this is why Sam Tomkins didnt shine as much as at Wigan, normally he links into the line after the Wigan halves have created space with speed in midfield, and quick accurate long balls out to the threequarters.
Myler and Sinfield just didnt look upto that. Infact Myler apart from his support play for the try was completely anonymous as a half with the ball. Sinfield tried but was too slow, and with only him doing anything was easily marshalled.

Robinson was dangerous with the ball at hooker and showed the importance of pace and agility in the midfield area to stand up forwards and put them on the backfoot. Mcilorum just lacked mobility around the ruck area. I actually wonder if he should actually move to loose forward at Wigan, where his physical approach to play may be better suited to the modern day loose forwards role of being like a third prop.

Bridge i felt was a real disappointment in the centres and offered nothing. Carmont eat him for breakfast. On the other centre Shenton had quite a decent game apart from that silly knock on near the end. Which was a mirror of the one he did at the DW earlier this year. Which is interesting to note as its essentially the same mistake, at a similar point in time within the game in the same part of the pitch. I will be looking out for that in the future for Saints, to see if he has a self destruct button in close matches.

For the exiles i think, Rangi Chase put one foot in the door to getting selected for the Kiwis.
Imagine him and Benji Marshall in the halves for new Zealand, with Lulu playing at hooker.'"

This.

As most of us have said for weeks, playing out-of-position and supporting half backs was never going to work. I'd sooner have seen Sam in the HBs than Sinfield or Myler.

Still, I enjoyed the game - both sides took it seriously and it was a fiercely physical game, but perhaps England took it too seriously while the Exiles enjoyed it more and threw the ball around. The sad fact for England is we have 1 or 2 genuinely international standard players in each position and that's it. We weren't awful but lacked any real spark going forward.