Watkins looked dangerous when he had the ball, he just didn't have the ball enough. Graham and Tom Burgess were pretty good too, and S'OL played well enough.

Burgess has had a superb season as well, though, and he's better under the high ball than McGilvery, so I don't have a problem with Burgess being picked.
Cudjoe hasn't had a great season from what I've seen, but I actually think Shenton deserved, and should've been picked at centre this series.

With a few minutes to go Chris Hill and Roby were the top 2 tacklers on the pitch despite only playing about 40-45 mins each. Surely some of the back rowers who played 65-70 mins should have been picking up some of that slack. It isn't exactly like they were offering anything useful in attack. Also think it was stupid to drag Roby off in a close game with 12 mins to go. Our halves were appalling so our best chance of somebody producing some magic was surely Roby?

I also agree Burgess has being good all year but he is being played on the wrong side playing him out of position on the right wing when he plays left wing, JM and LC play right side for club and both must have had pretty good seasons with Jerry being top of try charts,Leroy must have had a hand in alot of those ( maybe not i don't know... queue the Hudds fan).
Shenton seemed to be carrying injury's towards back end dislocated shoulder twice last year i think so may have decided against the call to get right for pre season (also dont know).

To be fair, with those half backs and that structure we've effectively surrendered the chance of attacking on either flank.

Through 160 minutes, I'm struggling to remember either centre getting good ball in space.

Very poor performance with the ball. Absolutely no imagination to our play at all. The back row were terrible they didn't create space for the third pivot or centres barely at all, all game.

We were incredibly boring to watch.

Widdop has plenty of energy, unfortunately it's about the same as a headless chicken

I quite enjoyed the first thirty minutes, there was some great defence from England, although N.Z didn’t have a clue how to break them down.

The only try of the game was fortuitous but how did Graham fail to score to equalise?

The game seemed to get scrappier as it went on & I was glad when the ref blew up for the end, if that’s the best the sport can muster, God help us.

We were saying exactly the same thing Hill and Roby good defensive efforts, the half backs were not running up to the line there was only Roby running up before passing so McBanana took him off.

Overall two poor teams with one of them with a reasonable kicking game, best player for England I would probably say Chris Hill. I don't rate Widdop at all, had 2 good kicks in the first half and that was it, he didn't help George Williams at all as a partnership. Lastly we must have a better than Bateman in the centres stick him in the back row where he belongs.

Rubbish game. Rubbing reffing. Rubbish coaching.
Made our sport look slow and boring on national tv.

Bateman's not a centre. God only knows why McNamara put him there.
Williams isn't ready.
Widdop isn't good enough.

The backrow was poor and did sod all. Starting with Hodgson isn't working. It's taking us too long to get into the game. We need Roby on from the start as we only move forward when he's at hooker.
God knows why McNamara took him off for the end of the game. He was the only one who looked like he'd do anything.
NZ did a number on Hall this week but we need someone else in the back 5 who can drive it out of our own half. Poor choice of backs there from McNamara. And the backrow and halves have got to pull their fingers out and start helping drive it out of our half and start backing up some forward runs.

Oh and McNamara needs to get out there and start complaining about VR decisions. NZ did it last week and it worked for them this week.

With that lack of service Wadkins must be looking for Bath's phone number. He may as well get paid handsomely for being a bystander on a rugby field.

Also i doubt the coach will drop anybody.

He's got no passing game at all. He's just a good runner of the ball which, in SL, makes you look like a fantastic player at international level, well, doesn't!

Awful from England. We have the players but they are being coached so poorly. I don't belive dropping Widdop or Williams and playing Luke Gale is going to solve our problems. It's the coach that's the issue. Look at Hardaker. Been absolutely brilliant all season, but was bang average today. Offered nothing in attack. Every time he got the ball he passed it almost instantly. Don't think he drew a man in all game!

McNamara should have gone after the 2013 World Cup.

McGuire lacked quite a few things when he was tried at International level but was exciting running the ball and a terrific support player.

Now he's become a more rounded and complete HB, but dropped off in those exciting qualities above due to age/loss of speed they won't consider picking him.

In each of the last two years McGuire has been the best player on the pitch in a major final. Yet he's even overlooked for the squad, never mind the starting XIII, and Matty Smith gets in the squad.

Williams may end up being a very good player, but he's not one yet. McGuire is, yet is nowhere to be seen.