Since when is a face grab a RL tackle ?

How long have you been watching internationals? They rely much more on individuals these days, like Thurston. Go back a few years and their team fluidity was a wonder to behold. In football terms they used to play like Brazil 1970, now more like current Brazil - they can still win and have their moments but are nowhere near the team they were.

so chronicle!! what do you want!! less domestic games! with players playing for there clubs that me you and many others go and see
or more internationals!!??
Its back to that age old question do we reduce the number of club games so that the international game is better?
How many games have the aussie squad played in this year!! and we keep sayin g the intesity of the "origin" series is immense!! err should that not be taken in to account, have they not played to many as well

For the record Chase did have 7 on his back and Sinfield 6 but Chase played the stad off role (wide running and taking the line on and second reciever) and Sinfield played the natural 7 role (organising, kicking and first receiver).

This was our best chance to beat Aus in a long time, this is one of the poorest Aus back lines I've ever seen. Uate is shaky under the high ball yet we only bombed him once and he droped it, Inglis isn't fit, Lawrence is decent but not in the same league as past AUS centres in recent years and same for Yow Yeh.

We got caught in the headlights and froze.

Most of the game we played one man rugby with no offloads and allowed Aus to put us on our backs and they slowed the PTB down far longer than we did. When we tackled we didn't put them on their backs and didn't slow the PTB down, when we played the ball quickly (Kirk Yeaman, Peacock and JJB played the ball very slowly) Roby was making plenty yards.

That game should be Peacocks last game, outstanding for so long but he's past it now. I would have had Griffin, Bailey, Mason, Crabtree and Mossop in before him for this series.

When we kicked the ball the Aussies put pressure on the kicker but when they kicked it they had all day and they chased the kick very well, putting pressure on Tomkins making him drop the ball. Only Jack Reed cased the kicks very well all series.

The intensity in defence wasn't there either, it was for the Aussies. We stopped moving in in defence right from the off allowing them do do what they wanted with the ball.

I don't think we are that far behind, we showed in the first game what we can do and against the Kiwis but it's as if the players haven't got the belief to beat the Aussies, an inferiority complex so to speak. We gave them far too much respect and we should have given it to them, in recent times when we have given it to the Aussies we are usually in with a shout, Ben Westwood gave everything he had in defence and attack all series and that's how our forwards should play against the Aussies.

Time to draw a line under this series and start a fresh:

McNamara should be replaced with a part time coach, Tony Smith would get my vote.
Ellery Hanley brought in to the coaching set up in some capacity and also Mal Reilly, someone with a lot of experience, respect and mental toughness.
A new breed of players should be brought through into the England team to get us ready for the WC 2013 e.g. Charnley, Mossop, Myler, Patrick, Lomax and older players who have tried and failed should be dropped e.g. Peacock and Wilkin. Heighington didn't impress me but he might be one of those players whom you don't really appreciate what he does untill you see it week in week out, Chase showed glimpses but out on that left side it seemed he was on a completly different wave length to Yeam and Briscoe, that can be addressed with more freindlies and England get togethers.

O the poor thing having to play 42 games how many do you think players were playing in the sixties and seventies.The trouble is we play players who aint good enough in that position at internationals.The other problem is when a player makes a break he turns to find no one in support.Roby did just that in the game looked and no one in support.The Aussie side do it and the player has options who to pass it to.On the one hand we have to blood another two props as Morley past test rugby and Peacock while a very good club player aint test class and past it.Down side is Crabtree aint test standard but will be in.If Brough had been in I belive he would have played out of his skin and caused the Aussies problems.We had a spell at Wembley when we threw the ball about and they looked ordinary then reverted to type one man up the middle rugby.

I agree with all this.

the 'too many games is wheeled out every year'

an english player will play 27 league games, maximum 5 cup games, an exiles match, and a maximum 4 playoff matches.. a total of 37, although how many of those would be intense??

australia players have 24 league games, maxiumum 4 games playoffs and 3 state of origin matches, and a mid season test against new zealand.. 32

when you consider 3 of those aussie matches are state of origin (the three of toughest games in the world) and the players often 'back up' for the clubs, and generally the league is far tougher than ours, i think it's pretty similar..

the number of games is a certainly a worry when you consider for example that was sinfields 42nd game when you compare that to the aussies that play about 30, now im not saying if the england team had played the same amount as the aussies that the scoreline may have been diffrent maybe it would or maybe not but we do have to look at ways to improve our chances and surley reducing games down and allowing a more lengthy pre season will be more benificial.
1. reduce the amount of super league games to 23, 11 at home and 11 away with the magic weekend.
2. introduce 3 game series against the exiles with no super league fixtures taking place that week and have england knights vs france in a 3 game series running at the same time.
3. for me id like to see super league clubs only play a couple of friendlies against lower league sides, it always takes 6-8 games into the new season before players and teams start to get in there stride so do away with playing against other super league teams in friendlies.

Sinfield is obviously the exception, rather than the rule in terms of games played. it isn't any different to the 60s/70s or 80s as someone else has said. Also they have 3 pre season trial games ( as far as I know they play all games against other NRL teams) so that number goes up a bit.
As 'paulshorpe' says it's the same amount of effort overall if not harder given the intensity of the NRL week in week out.

The business of the number of games played now compared to the past cropped up on Boots n' All this season and Stevo replied 'but we were playing for fun'. Slightly fatuous, I know, but the point he was making was that the game was part time in his era and played with much less intensity than now.

Played part time with players having full time jobs.

would be a definite 'no go' for the french team in mid season which would effectively mean three more games for the Catalan Dragons

Wrong thread, mate?

Though to answer your question, it's not.

So it was a penalty try then

you could possibly have a 3 week break from super league mid season but id deffo start of by having a longer pre season and starting the season in late february time and have 23 league games 11 home 11 away and a magic weekend, mid season have 3 test england v exiles in the space of 6 weeks with the players selected for england unavailable for club selection. this way someone like sinfield for example instead of playing 28 games league and mid season test he will only play 23