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.

Longer-term issues aside, I think McNamara needs to throw caution to the wind vs NZ, as we need to score points. Firstly that means a change in mindset and not letting the front rowers hog the ball.

Secondly he should definitely look at some changes. I'd go for it, and bring in both Hardaker at full back and Burgess on the wing, dropping Charnley altogether and moving Tomkins to 7. Smith may be an 'organiser' but he is zero threat with the ball. If he does play he HAS to run the ball early or he'll be a passenger.

The back row has been a weakness in both games so far, so I'd bring in both Whitehead and Cooper, simply because they can't be any worse going forward than the incumbents.

The top level is the NRL though

For me its no coincidence that we have the highest content of our guys playing in the NRL and were actually starting to look like we can beat (compete prob a better word) the Aussies, we need more players playing in the NRL

And look at the difference between Samoa ten years ago and now, that's down to players playing at the top level in the NRL

There is a PNG team in the Queensland cup, in 2016 Fiji will have a team, it wont be long before Tonga and Samoa have a side, there is no doubt that they are trying to do what the NZL warriors are doing and look at the Kiwis now and ten years ago!

My thoughts too, to expand on this, we have a young team that are going to play a lot of international rugby together and will get better as they get to know each other and mature

We need to keep the international origin concept going so they can have a mid season run out together

When?
Seriously......when?

we dont have enough international games I know but I would say with the age of the team mainly our better players who are all 25 and under they will have 5+ years to play with each other

Our big mistake on Sunday was not playing in second half like we did in the first. I thought the team had good shape and Widdop/Smith quite effective together, and we looked like we could threaten. Second half we looked like an Italian soccer team that had decided to defend a 1-0 lead for the remainder of the match. Big mistake. Only way to beat the Aussies is to deprive them of attacking ball. J Tomkins looks out of it. I'd be tempted by Whitehead but there are those who say his defence isn't up to it. I don't think Mike Cooper would be a bad shout, either.