I'd stick with Lomax, Gale & Widdop. Lets have some continuity. Lomax and Gale have 2 games to keep their place. Both need to improve.
Gale made two wrong calls in defence which led to tries.

Heighington needs dropping, just a plodder. No need to panic. Losing Walmsley was a blow and we lost our best player early on. Defensively we were absolutely outstanding.

For the next game i'd go:

Lomax
McGillvary
Watkins
Percival
Hall
Widdop
Gale
Graham
Roby
Hill
Whitehead
Bateman
O'loughlin

Hodgson
Walmsley
Burgess
Taylor

Broadly agree, and although I havent written Gale off just yet, the worse thing is we dont have another scrum half in the squad to put any sort of pressure on Gale, with McGuire and Sneyd sat at home. (At least Brown is getting a free holiday)

Also can we please let that be the last game Bateman plays at centre, he has played 4 games there now and surprise surprise they are the only 4 of the last 10 tests Hall has played without scoring, he doesnt know when to pass and the Slater try shows that he doesnt know when to jam in either. Nit his fault btw, he just is not a centre.

Also Im even more convinced that we should have picked Tomkins over Lomax, he had a 3 on 2 on the left and didnt see it and from what I have seen this year Tomkins is better defensively and positionally

Overall not a bad effort - a bit rusty in attack, but that should get better through the tournament. Left hand side goal line defence wasn't great - structurally those inside Bateman left him stranded and he was subsequently found too static with his feet planted for the 2 tries - a natural centre may have reacted better.
I rate Bateman highly as a player, and he'd been in my team, but he's not a centre and certainly not a top international centre - the fact we haven't got better options there is a crying shame and robs is of genuine attacking threats on both side of the pitch. Not holding him as a scapegoat by the way - I just think that's one of areas we could be much better.
Shame about Sam Burgess, and definitely would have Walmsley in over Heighington.

Changes really need to be kept to a minimum from now on so players can build momentum and cohesion.

Bateman to take over from an injured Burgess in the second row with Percival coming in, Walmsley in for Heighington and Roby and Hodgson to swap places for me.

We do have a better centre options than Bateman, one is called Shenton and he is sat at home after arguably his best ever season

Bateman had a better game then our 'proper' centre in fairness but he did look like a back rower playing centre. Just checked the stats and he made 156 metres today, so he clearly worked his socks off.

Move him inside one spot and get Percival in there. Sam Burgess looking at missing the next couple of games anyway.

Enjoyable contest that, good start to the comp. a couple of iffy calls but that's to be expected.

As to the reason for England's defeat.....











I blame Hardaker.

Although there are still question marks over Lomax, Bateman and Gale for me, I'd stick with the same lot for the next game apart from bringing in Walmsley. If Bennett is finally happy with his combinations, I doubt he'll change a thing.

He means Tom, you know, the other Burgess who played today?

For me bring a big Gale fan in the Cas team.... He needs to attack the line more for England. He rarely seems to get tackled. Always passes the ball unlike Widdop who dare have a run. Williams also likes to have a run.

I would give Gale another go but he must attack the line himself. Look for gaps and to make breaks instead of passing everytime he touches the ball. If not then put Williams in.

First half rubbish kicking game and unforced errors put us on the back foot, second half we were the better team. Wingers were excellent and the pack was equal to the Aussies.

Thought we missed out on a few decisions from the ref, knock on from Aus near their own line, a few high shots and a lot of slowing the PTB down. Having said that he seemed to miss a few for them too, high shot and obstruction come to mind.

I also noticed the video/commentary synchronisation issue at the start, had to watch without the sound for about 20 mins. The commentary was about 3 seconds ahead of the video!

As an aside, thought it was extremely disappointing to not fill the stadium for an Aussie England opener.

Not sure Hill is international class. He's a poor mans Klemmer(sp) the Aussie prop who had far more of an impact. Thought Roby made a huge difference. Wingers were great, Bateman played well. Second half kicking was far better mainly due to Widdop who has become a top player. Some of the attacking shape in the second half was excellent. Defence sound

All in all plenty of positives.

This isn't a bad call. Bateman offers nothing out wide, whereas in the middle he can niggle the Aussies. Walmsley will add some grunt, and Roby was clearly better than Hodgson when he was on. I thought our attack down the right look threatening at times, and forced the Aussies to scramble. We need to add a left attack, and for me that means we have to bring Percival in. He is one of our very few natural attacking centres, and with a good winger like Hall outside him, there's a lot of potential there.