1 - England are more battle hardened having played 2 of of the 3 other semifinalists

2 - Defence. Most England have conceded is 28 (5 tries). Against Australia. NZ have conceded 24 (5 tries) against Samoa

3 - Defence. NZ have scored through getting a roll on and quick PTB's. They won't outmuscle England and will need a plan A and B to score - I don't think they will

4 - Discipline - NZ have less - the likes of Luke, Foran etc... can be extremely petulant. Don't give them the space they like and they will crumble

5 - Attitude - NZ apparently smashed Scot winning 6 tries to 1. Eng struggled to beat France, winning 5 tries to 1. Eng will be underestimated

In addition, Eng have scored more than 50% of their tries through the wingers. NZ 2nd rows and centres have scored just as many as their own wingers - this would indicated NZ have been able to smash their way through opposition, whereas England have had to create space for their wingers to score. Eng will still create space - will NZ be able to smash through?

Our forwards can match any team and Tomkins has been very solid under the high ball all tournament.

Not just the forwards, our backs can match any team IMO.

I have every faith in England, not just winning against NZ but backing it up at Old Trafford against whoever we might play.

If - and it is an if - our pack and our defence are spot on then NZ's game won't be so different to what we're capable of.

The semis are the same as the last RLWC. Can there be diffeent results in both semis this time?

It would be one hell of a coincidence if they were the same results

Well, it will be intersting to see who has progressed relative to their opponents since then and whether all the hype (of both England and NZ) is justified.

Thanks for the info on Charnley. Don't watch much SL. So if he plays you'd expect some bombs his way then? Like we should at Manu?

There are many polynesian players who have poor lateral movement. Players like Burrow if he plays, may exploit that.

1. They will have a 20min lapse when we will score three tries
2. Our forwards will grind them out in the 2nd half
3. Luke will try to eat Chase this time and get sent off
4. Tomkins will have the game of his career
5. We will have learntnot to throw a forward pass or to drop the ball inthe last 6 days

The kick chase is very important and we need a strong finish to each set.

I also think Burrow has a real part to play around the ruck.

Returning to the forward battle, I think the key will be how we man up. If we can contain them without resort to overly compressing the defence and thereby leaving lots of space on the outside we'll win. Keep the "wall of white" at all times and we've got a chance provided individuals can hold the opposition in the middle.

Lets hope for one thing only a England win and then a England win in the final lets

this to me is the key thing.

If you listen to people talking about NZ you hear about the superhumans that have smashed everything put before them, and England have scraped through against poor opposition. Reality is that England had tougher games in the groups (Fiji are better than Samoa and France, Ireland and PNG are probably similar); and England had a tougher quarter final yet NZ only scored 1 try more.

Both have played France, 34-6 to 48-0, is hardly a seismic difference in scoreline (and if England hadn't put the cue on the rack in the 2nd half we would have won more easily).

We beat Fiji comfortably, Fiji beat Samoa comfortably, but Samoa pushed NZ hard in the 2nd half of that first game. If England's forwards get stuck in, like the Samoan forwards did, we have seen what happens, and they look distinctly beatable.

The only issue for me is that in every game we have had 20 really good minutes, then either put the cue on the rack or, as against Australia, been weakened by the interchanges available. If we start like we did against the Aussies, we will be able to maintain the momentum this time around.

I've just bought my tickets for the final, so we've got to win now.

Another reason England could win is to compare how each team fared in their most recent match against Australia. England narrowly losing 28-20 and NZ comfortably losing 32-12.