Publically state we will never play an International match without a neutral ref ever again, and if that means the Australians ' exempt ' themselves from that part of the sport, then so be it

I didn't make it clear in my post, but I was actually thinking about the medium to long term rather than the team for the next game...apologies for that

Which other International Sport doesnt now have neutral refs?

We weren't a million miles away today. We need keep the intensity up for the full 80 minutes and improve our attacking kicking game. Did we get any repeat sets all game?

Considering every time we kicked, the kicker got put on the floor after kicking, improving that might be a problem, but not once penalised ,make of that what you will?

I think if all our best players were in the NRL we'd win. Since NZ have had their players in they have come on. Ditto Samoa. Australia are suffering because the NRL attracts quality players and sadly for Australia most of the best are not Aussies.

I'm not sure I buy the "get as many players in the NRL as possible" mantra. Tom Burgess and Mike Cooper are in the squad ahead of the likes of Craig Huby and Kyle Amor but neither are as good IMO. Sam Tomkins is no better than he was in SL, and Gareth Widdop is nothing special, and I think if he was an SL player then everyone would just be saying how average he is.

The key for England is to increase their talent pool, whether that be here or in the NRL we need more players of world class standard to pick from. We're making improvements but we're just missing 2 or 3 more players of the required quality needed to win a tournament.

I agree that we don't need huge chunks of players playing in the NRL. I think just a few going over there and excelling like Graham and Sam Burgess and even Cooper holding his own is enough to make the SL based players realise that the Aussie aren't unbeatable superhumans that we can't hang with. Too often around the 90's/00's I thought the England/GB side were mentally in awe of the Aussie team. I think last year and now (whilst we haven't got the job done) we aren't in awe of them.....we're just some pieces and the fact it's been so long away from getting a win. To be missing both Roby and McIlorum as a starter over Hodgson is looking costly. Either of them with Clark coming off the bench would be a significant plus.

Graham apart our best players were not those who play in the NRL - Chris was significantly better than Tom Burgess who should not be anywhere near that side. Widdop offered very little in the game and neither did Tomkins. Hall, Sargison and Hill were our best players non of whom play in the NRL.

Personally don't think that is the answer. We have a hard enough time promoting our sport in this country without having all our class players leave. For me the ideal would be to limit somehow the dross NRL players coming into our comp. I don't mind a few quality NRL players but too many teams fill up their squad with average at best Aussie/NZ players

We need to stick with what we have and build continuity, that's how the Australians have done it. We have a 1, 6, 7 & 9 that could be together for the next 5-7 years, the more these guys play together in the same system the better we'll be.
In 5 years time Smith, Cronk, Slater, Gallen, Bird, Thaiday, Thurston, Scott etc. won't be around, and Australia don't have anything half as good coming through.

I know that Aussie team yesterday had plenty of injuries and guys missing. But man for man the England team was still younger than the Aussie one, and if I was picking my first choice team it would be younger still.

Most of the key players Australia are missing are getting on and won't be playing in a few years anyway. We've seen in this tournament that the next generation aren't a patch on the current one.

I'm optimistic for the future of English RL.

I don't think we're that far off at all. With enough warm up games and a neutral set of officials we have every chance.

Long term I think the move to a 12 team SL is a good move as is the P&R move. I'd also move to a top 6 or top 5 play off to increase the intensity of games. Out top players need to play games of a higher intensity so they get used to playing under pressure.

The Aussies and Kiwis get that due to the great number of quality players in the NRL. Origin provides another outlet.

There is never going to be an equivilent of orgin over here so we need to make the league work better. Top 8 play offs are a farce when teams can lose by 40 or 50.

Playing to the same rules would also help. I thought SL had slowed down because of the 'liberal' interpretation of the rules at the ruck but the game on Sunday was a joke, it was like wrestlemania.

Alas, the return of P&R will slow that down to a trickle. Clubs will spend more on "staying up" and less on development.......it seems that short termism is back in Vogue.