And Japan in the Union world cup or, Iceland in the recent football debacle.
A top coach is the person who can get the best from their players. Get them in the right frame of mind and have them achieving 9.5/10 performances when they take the field.
Of course, if the coach of both teams does this then, it will come down to ability or maybe a game plan ?

You see it in lots of sports where a group of players enjoy playing and will do anything for their team, something instilled by the coaching staff and the players themselves.
Although they have to have some ability in the first instance, it certainly isn't just down to how good they are.
Also, certain players perform better with other individuals around them, again, something which a decent coach will spot.

Just because a team has the "best" 13/17 players does not mean that they will win and it's naive to think so.

Can't see many changes from the original line up vs NZ. Percival and Williams did enough, but that's it for changes I think.

Lomax
McGilvary
Watkins
Percival
Hall
Williams
Widdop
Hill
Hodgson
Graham
Whitehead
Bateman
Burgess

Clark
Burgess
Burgess
Cooper

We're not exactly playing worse than under McBanana, so if anything Bennet's taking us sideways, not backwards. I wonder if Bennet wasn't Australian would such a fuss be made after two competitive games?

I was making the point that international coaching and club coaching are very different. Rugby League games tend to be won by the better team on most occasions. In football it is possible to organise your defence and hope for a set piece goal and win with only 20% possession. You can't really do that in RL. If you only have 20% possession you lose. Hence my belief that coaches can only achieve so much in RL.

If we are saying that motivating the team is the coaches primary focus then I really don't see Bennett being of much use to England. I hesitate to say it because I'm a Wigan fan, but Shaun Wane is really the obvious choice. Mind you, I rather hope he doesn't get offered the job, I'm sure he doesn't need the aggravation. And because of Australia's clear superiority in quality and quantity of choice he would be very unlikely to succeed.

Didn't McBanana get criticised for exactly the same thing in the last tournament?

You've attended the training sessions then? What was it like?

I'm taking a guess mate based on his demeanour. Are all your posts well informed or do you occasionally offer opinion?

My opinion is that on this issue you are talking crap. From what I have read the most successful coach in RL history is far more relaxed away from the media & doesn't have problems motivating his players.

Why the need to be abusive? I am just holding an opinion, which clearly you don't agree with.

The video of Bennett laughing along with the team when Burgess was leading the post game sing along suggests he has a very different relationship off camera.

We lost by a point against a good Kiwi team where in reality we played far better than the score line suggests and but for a few handling errors and 1 misplaced pass could have been 18 point plus ahead.

We had a poor 1st half against a fired up Scottish team with a point to prove but sorted things out in the 2nd half.

He made a couple of changes that reflected what most people were saying : our centres were poor and our half backs lacked spark. That's a big plus on what we've seen before with some other coaches reluctance to change.

He obviously knows how he wants the team to play and has given them clear directions.

The only valid criticism I believe is is interviewing persona which is not great from a PR viewpoint.

For Saturday I'd keep Percival at Centre and bring in Cooper/Taylor moving Sam Burgess to SR and playing Cooper/Graham at 13 for a bit more size.

I'm undecided about full back and the halves. I'm not a fan of chopping and changing those positions as players need to develop an understanding, however, I'm not convinced by Lomax or Gale & we are yet to see Williams against Australia or NZ. I'm leaning towards Widdop at FB and Gale & Williams in the halves.

What I think is more important is the tactics. Although many people are commenting how good Australia are they play a very similar style to Bennett of playing for position and completing sets. They are without doubt better at it than we are and I don't think we can match them playing the same way. I feel we need to offer something different and take a few chances, I think they can be rattled. We need to play with a bit more fire and really get stuck into them, we have seen in the past they can be put off their game.

Quick line speed is a must. Need to be far sharper and more aggressive in defence.

Agree Steve, this is an absolute must. Intensity and line speed has to be absolute red lining and we certainly need to up the aggression and NOT stand back and show them respect like we have in the past and start playing when the game is gone.

Yep. Up in their faces every tackle. Hitting them after they've passed/kicked etc etc.

Pressure and hit Thurston. He was playing on one leg v NZ. He's obviously got a knock of some kind.