Don't think the venue was the wrong decision at all. The date and kick off times were more of the problem.

As for Bennett and England.. He has definitely got England playing some very basic and boring footy. Watkins is getting lots of stick but he hardly touched the ball.

Also Bennett and his pre or post match interviews are so bad to watch. He gives the interviewer nothing at all and gives off the impression that he would rather be somewhere else.

there were plenty of Scotland fans around us, and i saw plenty of Scotland flags around the ground,which is a good thing surely?

I think the stick Bennett has received for his interviews is unfair. The dour, contemptuous demeanour is exactly the same as it has been his whole career. He isn't going to change now.

Amazing best coach of his generation and people always find something wrong.

He is a dry person to interview apparently he hates doing them. And over 20 odd years I would hate them as well.

I'd go back to the tri nations but play each other twice and have a second tier comp played at the same time and play double headers every time there isn't going to be a fourth team to match the big three ever

It could well go down to points difference to decide the finalists.

I hope you're right, that would mean beating the Aussies next week



After watching them dominate NZ (apart from the scoreboard) and England making hard work of beating Scotland, I'll take any kind of win next week.
You should get a decent price at Ladbrokes.

yep, me too.

Boring to watch though - International RL has actually become worse to watch than RU

Maybe but on current evidence he is taking us backwards.

Not a bad shout, two games against Aus and NZ would also mean you could put 2 fixtures in the heartlands and two in expansion areas and keep everyone happy.

How did they get 21,009 as the attendance, even if they counted the number twice (once for each match) surely there wasn't that many?

The capacity is 32,000 so 2/3rds full seems about right, and with it being a double header many people will have arrived/left midway through a game.

When we had the tri nations people moaned and said we needed to include development nations to help them improve and when we include them people moan and want the tri nations back.

It's just like what happens with the super league format.

moan change moan change moan change.

How did they get 21,009 as the attendance, even if they counted the number twice (once for each match) surely there wasn't that many?

I can't see fans, players, or TV broadcasters buying into a concept which has 3 teams playing each other twice. You would get two teams end up playing each other 3 times in a short series.

That's kinda an overkill if you ask me.

You mean like last year with the series against NZ

like in SOO when 2 teams play each other 3 times in a short space of time. you're right it would never catch on

Wow. You really are gonna bring up SOO as an example. Hey if we are gonna talk about getting on SOO levels lets go back and look at that concept of England vs the exiles.

was you one of them guys who said that can catch on like SOO also.

Just no... It can never get to that level.

Oh and why should Samoa, PNG or Fiji miss out on the 4 nations. Or are you saying that in Australia it should be 4 nations while in England it should be tri nations.

Now let's gets on to the scheduling of a tri nations with teams playing each other twice.

Wouldn't that be a 7 week tournament with just three teams. You really think players, fans and TV will be interested in this.

All the other countries should miss out because there aim is to keep the score respectable what's the point in that I can tell you what will happen at every World Cup the group games will be quite competitive with the way it's fixed then you get three one sided q-finals followed by Australia hammering the weakest semi final opponent then England and New Zealand fight it out to see who gets beat by Australia in the final

I'm just waiting for the old ''We're never going to beat the aussies until our players can match the intensity of SOO. Bring back yorkshire vs lancashire''

And of course who can forget ''we're never going to beat the aussies until clubs produce more junior players. To do that we need to do away with relegation so clubs can focus on long term development''

Or if P&r isn't in effect see ''we're never going to beat the aussies until we have less meaningless games, half the teams near the bottom have nothing to play for because theres no P&R. Bring back P&r''.

Round we go.

What about a 6 nations? Eng, Aus, NZ, another European team, and 2 of Samoa/Fiji/Tonga/PNG. Probably not necessary to even have a final, so a 5 week tournament.

What about a new idea, which was actually proposed by Phil Gould to solve the NSW halfback problem.
The RFL set up a kind of halfback academy (like football has in France and Germany), where they take the best emerging halfbacks and improve their skill levels at a younger age, and then work with the super league clubs to move them back into the academy system.

Good idea.

Rather see this over a long 7 week tri nations playing each other twice.