On the flip side, the Aussies would have tore Foxy to shreads too. Look at what Wigan did to him for their first try in our play off game!

Briscoe might not be the finished article but he's the player we need at this stage so he is ready for 2013.

Steve Mac has picked some young kids who will be more ready for the challenge in a few years time. I feel the RFL would rather be called World Champions than Four Nations Champions and as such Macnemara has been given the instructions to get these youngsters up to a standard where they are not affraid of the Aussies and are ready for them.

I do think he has missed a trick in not taking Foxy, I honestly believe if he was playing at Leeds, Saints or Wigan he would have been the SL's top try scorer and would keep Hall/Smith off the wings at Leeds and he'd have been picked ahead of either of them for England.

Tom Briscoe however could be put at centre if need be, he is freakishly strong with a great turn of pace. He is generally in the right position but gets drawn in from the wing probably because he's more of a centre than a winger and wants to get involved more. Put players where they are naturally used to playing and we might have a shot at winning a couple of games. As it is though this year for me is a write off.

Englands biggest weaknesses?



The forwards

The backs

the calibre of the players

The coach

The coaching staff

General apathy from all sections of the media creating a negative atmosphere

the training methods

superleague compared to the NRL


Thats just a few I can think of

Our biggest weakness will be confidence once we get beat by The Maoaris, having just looked at their team.

Look pretty impressive don't they.

They could be a better side than PNG

what a sensible post thank you for that iam not trying to be a fc v kr thread but that is my opinion

Australia will slip to third in this competition with NZ and England playing in the final.

The shock of missing out will signal the end of Lockyers Test career and will also see the careers of TLL, Boyd and a host of others strangled at Birth.

Ultimately Australia's damaged psych will recover on the back of ready made excuses such as missing players, poor officiating and so on.

They'll also claim much of the credit for Englands international resurgence by pointing to Ellis, Widdop, Burgess and Morley while also citing Tony and Brian Smiths influence on Steve McNamara.

We'll still get dead headed ausie trolls coming on here to tell us about our 30+ years of hurt blah blah blah

Wherever S.Tomkins isn't playing (1/6/7)
Threequarters
Hooker
Bench Props
Coach

On the plus side, our backrow should be decent...

England will never win anything at the top level.
They are gone.
Lets not over complicate it.
PNG have more chance at third than England.

That's interesting

I don't get a chance to see many England or Super League training sessions, which part of England's training methods are you referring to? You don't have to go into great detail, just tell us all what you think the key points are in England's training methods being a big weakness

TBH I would love to see an English team win a 4 Nations or the World Cup it would no doubt mean the start of the resurgence of international rugby league. Good thing's will come from this, Test Rugby League will take it's rightful place at the top of the heap in Australia as opposed to SoO.

When Tony Smith prepared for the 2008 World Cup he said he left no stone unturned and traveled to Oz a couple of time to check out the venues and looked at all of the latest techniques.
His big call was the homework and preparation.
He sounded like a Coach bullting as he drew his salary no different than Macca.
What happened to the so called inquest of that shambolic tour?
The failure this year will have the same old same old in 2013 we will be ready with new players etc.

England can not produce at competitive team in the competition they develop players in, its that simple.

Thats rubbish mate and you know it.

If Australia lost to England they would go up two gears.

They cruise against England, they take the Kiwis serious.

So, you don't know anything about the training methods then?

I wonder if Barry will provide more insight, I hate to think you guys are just making things up as you go along