That would be my guess rather then Widdop being dumped.

A straight shoot on between the two halves on Saturday to partner Widdop at Olympic Park.

Thought Gale struggled a bit physically against NZ. Was bumped off a few tackles and looked to be blowing and was a passenger those last 15mins. Not sure that we will learn an awful lot about how he overcomes that by watching him against a far less physical and inferior Scotland side

Personally think we should be picking the 1,6 & 7 that we are looking to play vs Australia for them to get game time together to gel. This however looks like a shootout between Gale and Williams as it would be unlikely that Widdop misses out next week.

I tbought Bennett was quite critical of widdop after the game so not convinced he's a cert for the Aus game.

Interesting to see he"s also brought Percival into the squad.

yes dont think widdop did anything special against nz, infact he was poor till his pass for the try for hall and the kick from the goal line. before that did nothing and missed the drop goal!

good to see percival back in

I can see the point in giving Williams a go and possibly giving Widdop a rest, but not convinced I'd leave Widdop out against the Australians. Gale needs to show he can push the side around the park in Widdop's absence.

Crowd looks appalling on the BBC coverage so far. Hopefully everyone is hiding in the concourse because it's cold.

Shocking.

Saturday night in Coventry wasn't appealing obviously!

I'm not surprised.
I've absolutely no ambition to sit in Coventry on a Saturday night in November to watch England play Scotland.

So Scotland, like NZ, are targeting Watkins defence - successfully.

They've got lots wrong with the scheduling of this game, a double header in cold November doesn't appeal, it's Bonfire Night and people will be out (and less viewers on TV)

Coventry isn't a town with a great reputation so people havent been keen to go spend a weekend there.

But ultimately fault lies with the RFL's poor marketing, as we know venues weren't announced til late in the day and little to no marketing done. You can expect a football and RU mad town to turn out to an event they don't know is on.

The RFL will be hoping that both England and NZ win tonight to boost the crowd for next week in London because sales there don't look fantastic either.