Lack of composure at the end again cost us.Not levelling the scores earlier when we had the chance, Widdop ignoring Gale and Watkins and throwing a looping ball to John Bateman on the break, they are not the sort of decisions that win test matches.

The guy was awful today. Seems like all the predicted weak links let the side down. I'd drop all 3 Burgess brothers for the Oz match, both centres and Widdop. How we fill those gaps is a different problem though. Oh, And I'd beg McNamra to coach the rest of the tournament.

Can't be criticising Watkins and upsetting the blue and amber folk



All in all a typical English performance. Matty Smith would've gone for th drop goal.

Thought the centres were awful today, did nothing between them and with wingers like we had today we should have been giving Jerry and Ryan Hall much more ball and giving them chance to run.
Sarginson is/was just plain crap and Watkins looked like he simply couldn't be bothered.

Half-backs were pretty anonymous apart from Gale's pointless high kicks.

We had no spark, no one just to come up with the eye catching play.

Thought Graham and McGillvary were our best players by a mile, can't really remember anyone else standing out.

I just don't know what we do in the centres, they were both awful today.

Anyone able to point out to me what Bennett brought to the table that Macnamara couldn't?

I am very fed up of drop goals.

Last three games.

My teams attempts, two. Scored, nil.

Opposition attempts, three. Scored, three.

Did you actually watch the game? Widdop made wrong decisions in the last 10 but was easily our most creative threat, Sam burgess was vital in getting our sets moving, and Watkins was quiet but still did far better than Sarginson.
Also if you can't actually believe we didn't look better today than last year under Mcbanana

I've not been impressed with Bennet but it's only two chuffin games.

Watkins just gets unnecessary criticism for England, by no means the worst performer today but gets picked out for some reason, if Widdop had got the ball to him on the break instead of Bateman then he would have been under the posts as there was only Harris in front of him

10 seconds left why did clarke run into the kiwi defenders? he should be getting that ball back in the middle, at least give us a chance to throw it around

too many poor decisions, widdop, s burgess


sarginson? oh dear!

Widdop lost us the match - his only creativity in putting Johnson through.

In summary, two poor teams who just provided a backdrop for one good player to show how much better than the rest he was, Oz to win the final by 40 plus. They look a better sde than for a few years and I rate Meninga.

The Burgess twins have bad ball control on collision, that's nothing new from them. We looked far better with Graham and Hill on.

Sam, I think was guilty of trying to do too much today.

Watkins was Ok, kept Kata quiet and didn't get much ball. Sarginson on the other hand seemed to get a lot of ball and make the wrong descision a lot. Wouldn't have a problem with either being dropped for Percival.

I'm a big critic of Widdop, but interception aside, don't think he did too much wrong today and is probably worth a try a game in goal kicks.

He kicked out n the full from a kick off at a vital time. He cost us the game more than any other individual.

On a positive note, so far I have only bought tickets for the London match. Looks like I've saved on wasting too much cash.

It's not that though though is it, he was a pre meditated scape goat on here anyway and so it proves. He didn't do a great deal wrong, yeah dumb play at the last but there were plenty of others making several brain farts towards the end when a calm head was needed, captain fantastic a main culprit.

England don't seem to know how to use Watkins, he needs the ball either very wary to get on the outside or very late so he can use his footwork at the line to break. At the minute they are acting like he is Greg inglis and giving him the ball in 2 on 2 situations and expecting him to bash his way through.
Maybe Lomax and Gale (and Bennet) should try watching some of Watkins game tape so they use him correctly, as is you might swell play a second row at right centre for the lack of good ball reaching that side.

It's an absolute myth that Watkins is an international standard centre, he's always been anonymous. And it just shows how poor we are in that department. If you keep doing the same thing, you'll get the same result. Keep picking Watkins and you'll keep picking an uninterested bystander.

As for the halfs, I'd go with what a previous poster said. Smith would've had the game management to win that with Williams providing the flair.

Try watching some of Watkins England games when Sinfield was playing, he knew how to use him (so does Matty Smith actually) and as such he was very effective, if Watkins isn't an international class centre the England aren't close to having one as he is easily the best centre in SL

He is extremely over-hyped by some. Don't think he's as disinterested as some folk reckon, he's just not as good as they've been told he is. That said, I agree he's the best we have. Depressing.

Pretty much agree with that, but I'd drop both centres. It would be a massive ask of young Williams to expect him to come in and put England on the front foot from here; I expect Bennett will keep faith with Widdop and Gale. I'd liked to have more of Cooper and less of the Burgess twins.

Gale is not an international standard scrum half, Lomax is not an international standard fullback missing that tackle that led to their try.

Also Daryl Clark should have been brought on in the 1st half when the England forwards were on top to run from dummy half quick PTBs.

Lack of composure and game management with Johnson a different class to anyone else on the field was the difference....as others have said little change even with Wayne Bennett as the coach.

There is nobody better though in england imo. Yeah lets shove Bateman there that will cause havoc



TBH i hope he does get dropped and retires from international football and concentrates on club rugby if this is gonna be the response when he cleraly did nothing wrong to warrant such singling out.

One point that nobody has mentioned is NZ's kicking behind our right flank. Did they see McGillvray or Watkins as the weakness? As the former cleaned up each time I am wondering whether it was a Watkins they were effectively picking out as the weak link in the English defensive line?