England's pack was dominated there today. The back row in particular is really weak. I would drop both the second rowers and bring in Whitehead and O'Loughlin.

England made a huge number if individual errors across the park and put themselves under a lot of pressure. The only player i saw that didn't do a great deal of positive stuff was westerman. Everyone else made some good stuff even though they may have made a mistake.

Swap SoL with Westerman and you get a huge uplift in contribution in both attack and defence.

That's all that's needed. Ideally Hardaker had been playing centre for two seasons but he hasn't so you can't justify picking him as centre.

I suppose it wouldn't help that McNamara played Ferres on the right when he plays for Huddersfield on the left. Can't suddenly switch sides of the field like that and be as effective especially at international level.

Elliot Whitehead is a necessity for England. Does Steven McNamara understand that?

Paranoid much? I'm sure if he was still at Saints you'd be just as vigorous in your defence.
FWIW I think he should keep his place.

Elliot Whitehead is our only saviour. He can win us the game vs Australia on his own.

England had a few fixable problems - dreadful ball control and really poor line speed being the top two. If they play that way against either Oz or NZ they'll get hammered. One is an individual issue, the other a team one which was also a problem at the WC. Hopefully the weakness up the middle on the line was down to new combinations - otherwise they'll ship a shedload of points.

In terms of personnel, both second rows looked ordinary to me, Shenton I think really struggles with the physicality, as does Charnley. It might be a big call but assuming SOL comes in I'd consider Hardaker + Burgess on the left and Whitehead for one of the other second rows.

Smith did better than expected but he HAS to run occasionally or he'll be completely anonymous, apart from his kicking which was very good.

The elephant in the room is Tomkins. He did well at covering grubbers, did as well as expected in tackling (very good takedown of a rampaging Pritchard) but you cannot ignore his problem with the high ball, most of which he doesn't even try to catch. Samoa didn't even pepper him - against Australia and NZ he'll be facing those kicks all day, and you'd expect him to completely miss at least two a game.

England are far too error-prone in general to have much hope against Australia. If they vastly improve in that area and manage not to gift tries through schoolboy defensive errors then they have the ability to run Australia close. Sadly I expect we'll be lamenting early errors causing us to be 12+ behind within a few minutes.

S. Tomkins seems to have lost an awful lot of pace, to be honest I don't think he warrants his place in the team.
Leaving that bomb to bounce just inside the dead ball line was a huge error in judgement, it would have being easier to have a foot over the whitewash and just catch the fecker, to me it shows he isn't (& never has been) a full-back in a month of Sundays. Get Hardaker in there or we'll get mullered.
Ferres should be dropped for Whitehead and whilst Westerman was clearly used as stopper down the middle (33 tackles in about 40 minutes game time) his talents were wasted despite getting his nose through the line a few times. Still, he should be in above Tomkins J even if if SoL comes back in.

I said right from the start of Sam's international career that he'll NEVER make an international full back and I stick to it. Seems like more people are now seeing this. It's not just his work under the high ball, he doesn't get go in hard on the head on tackle. That try under the posts - a full back like Burke, Mumby, even Hampson would have stopped it. He has pace and skill which I always felt would be best used at stand off. I'm beginning to think maybe centre or more realistically coming off the bench. If Hardaker had held the FB spot over the last couple of years (which there is no doubt in my mind he should have) he'd be performing solidly there now. My worry is the coaches panic and bring Hardaker in for a big game and he makes a big one-off mistake. The idea of picking Sam seems to me purely for coming into the attacking line. That is just one facet of FB play and in my mind a simple one - pretty easy to create the extra man if you've got a reasonable level of pace. From what I've seen Hardaker is strong in attack too anyway.

thought sam tomkins had a decent game, some great defence from him, saving a few tries and diffusing kicks, ok he let the ball bounce for a high bomb but we got away with it this time and he made up for it with his try

Seen varying reports on Sam Tomkins performance ranging from people slating him leaving high balls to some describing him as our match winner (and forgetting the high ball issue).

In truth it was a mixed bag from him. A real mixture of sensational defence, slick attack and some strange decisions dealing with kicks. One thing is for sure the lad needs to be in our 13 somewhere! We're not good enough to leave a lad of that ability out.

I agree with the last sentence. His floating over the ground running style reminds me of Jonathan Davies'. JD started at SO, was moved to FB but, IMO, played his best (and great) RL when put in the centres. That's where I am beginning to think ST should be playing. I am not sure JD had played there until a relatively advanced age but he excelled. JD was probably lighter than ST and up against monsters of the era - Meninga, Miles, the Iros, etc. So I think ST maybe could do a job there. Having said that, JD was a much better all round rugby player and as a result maybe was more adaptable?

I agree he's too good to leave out completely, but the fact is the Aussies will have watched the Samoa game and they will do what Samoa didn't - put accurate bombs up all day.

I'll defend his attacking capability, as he does pose a genuine threat, and I'll defend his one-on-one and defence against grubbers. But the high ball issue just can't be ignored as though he can somehow 'make up for it' elsewhere. You let in one or two soft tries against Australia and you may as well not bother turning up.

Just looking at the match stats. Tom Burgess - 8 tackles and 4 misses. That's horrendous really, even for a half-back.