From a wigan fan's point of view...

Thought bricoe did well today, very unclucky to be dropped for the 2nd half. Thought the obvious replacement was Eastmond for McGuire. Obviously Smith was watching a different game than the rest of us!

weird game - entertaining nonetheless:

for me -

excellent - Ellis, Burgess, Graham, Sinfield (best he's played at international), Crabtree, Westwood (surprised the out of me, he looked dangerous), Tomkins, Eastmond, Hall.

I was disappointed with JP, I thought he had an average game, but he's still the most committed forward in world RL.

Get rid (for time being) - Shents, McGuire (doesn't cut it at this level), Smith, S Briscoe.

What about this for a team?

Eastmond
Fox
Ellis
Bridge
Hall
Sinfield
Tomkins
Graham
Roby
Moz
JP
Westwood
Burgess

Crabtree
Carvell
Wilkin
Moore

???

Also think Sinfield was only decent when he moved to hooker, led the team around the park well and improved vastly on roby's woeful service.

Can't see what Shenton did wrong. Excellent defence, no mistakes, good work leading up to an England try, looked committed to taking the line on when he got chance.

I agree to some extent, but in looking 'safe', he never actually showed that cutting edge that the modern day centres need. However i was particularly impressed with his defence, having not seen much of him throughout the season. The tackle on Slater to put him in touch when he gethered the ball 10m infield was an amazing effort.

Think he's one for the future - just not sure he's ready. Team looks more balanced with someone else there for the time being. I would've still gone with Senior & Gleeson today. Pair of knobs, but reckon they'd have done a job and England might have won with them there today.....

I have just found out in the papers websites that Morley was playing today.

If so, he was worse than the lad that got dropped for the second half.

JP was nondescript too.

Impressed with Crabtree ,Graham and Westwood.

We are a bit short on centres too !

Bring back the biff for the Kiwis !

In modern RL, the back-three i.e. 2 wingers and the full-back have a crucial role to play in terms of returning the ball quickly to enable good "exit sets" and although some my analyse the game and say Briscoe "didn't do anything wrong" he didn't return the ball quick enough which resulted in an accumulation of pressure which is why the Aussie game plan was built around kicking behind him.

In the second-half when Briscoe was taken off it removed this problem which is why the exit sets were more effective and the game changed complexion so it was 100% the right decision to take him off.

The bottom line is at this level, you can't expect to beat Australia with this type of weakness and I'm afraid yesterday showed Tom Briscoe doesn't have the athletic ability so was always going to be a target.

LOL

I love how people think they know better than the coach.

How they think he'd take a player off who didnt deserve it and leave one on who was at fault for the tries (according to people on here he was at fault).

You people are retards.

Great statement. Now, how about backing it up with some examples.

Tom's lack of experience was evident in some of his play which is only natura. He did nothing wrong defensively and was let down by the men inside him. I just hope he does not let this affect him as he will probably feel like the scapegoat now.

I think the Australian attack was always going to be concentrated on whichever side Inglis played, this guy is one of the best centres in history, having Lee Smith up against him was ridiculous.

After watching the game live and again on the TV, it appears to me Tom Briscoe was not up to scratch yesterday. He was slow and his inexperienced showed. He wasn't helped by his poor centre either. I think Fox will get his chance next week.