Well, i hope all the Wigan players are withdrawn from the team next week, and England can go hang........

Grow up children, it's a team game and the team won... Took a while to settle, but functioned well for the last 50 mins... Roll on next week.

I rate Bateman but it's the same as trying Ablett there a few years back. They do a good job at centre at SL but it's very different at International level. It's obvious that his future is in the backrow anyway so he is just a stopgap filling at centre for the time being.

I agree but currently we've not got many options. I believe we should have picked Percival tbh (an ideal opportunity to expose him to this level which is his level IMO) but from within the squad Bateman must play.

England are crying out for a big athletic back rower who creates space for the 3/4s, Whithead does it well for Catalans, but seems to be a bit of a passenger at the moment. I'd like to see him try and get his hands on the ball a bit more.
On another note, Cooper's injury makes Walmsley's injury, and Cuthbertson's bizarre non-selection even more crucial. I don't think we have any other front rowers in the squad, do we?

1 penalty against SOL, not plural for effect
Not sure what wrong calls, but keep saying it for effect

I thought Farrells 40odd tackles was fantastic and out of the 3 Whitehead was the quietest although he didn't have a bad game by any stretch.

Everyone did what they had to do as a TEAM and a really good effort from everyone.

As for Williams going to the NRL, ditto Makinson, Percival, Joe Greenwood, Savelio, Thompson etc.
Maybe even Roby???
Maybe we should only all be delighted when all our stars have to go to the NRL to develop because there's no-one left in SL to play against.
Can't wait till Hall, Hardaker, Watkins, ward and Sutcliffe go from Leeds as well.

Agree with most of the above, I think some posters were a bit premature on being a bit critical of George Williams in the first half, overall he attempted a lot more creativity than Widdop. Our centres were a bit ineffective on the attacking front, we need to play a lot better next week because I think the kiwis certainly will.

Good start to the series for England. A win whilst nowhere near at their best.

Stand-outs for me where Tom Burgess who had a huge impact off the bench, possibly the best game I've ever seen him play! He morphed into George!

Williams who grew into the game and for a 20 year old halfback stood up well, he took on the line more than most England halves have done over the last 10 years.

Hill, a fantastic prop. Wire are lucky that the NRL haven't come sniffing yet as he would do well over there.

Roby along with T Burgess completely swung the momentum of the game, with his pace from the ruck.

Mention to Ferres as well as the two try's where big moments in the game.

Slightly below par for me ...

Bateman, but not due to his lack of attacking threat more his lack of aggression and mongrel that all Wigan fans have come to love. Against Whare who IMO is the best defensive centre in the game he was always going to struggle to make much of an impression going forward.

Watkins, unlike Bateman was up against a make shift centre who usually plays FB or wing. I was hoping for a little more.

Hardaker, he didn't get himself involved enough. To try and take the FB away from S Tomkins he needs to become more of a threat going forward.

Once the likes of Alex Walmsley, George and Sam Burgess return to that pack it's pretty mouth watering. Particularly the front row.

Lots of positives. For me, though, the areas to improve are halfbacks and centres.

Widdop offered less than Williams, so it would be Widdop I'd drop to get Gale in for a bit more unpredictability.

Bateman is a good second row. But if he's the second best English centre playing the game, I'm a monkey. Our attack was notably more threatening down the right with Watkins, and if we get two halves who can distribute the ball, we need a genuine centre on the left too. Time to get Cudjoe in. Bateman would be better used in the pack.

But who'll do the tackling that Farrell does/did today?

Odd games really. Thought England had some luck at key times. With all that possession and dominance tries were still pretty hard to come by. NZ dropped a lot of ball too. Overall, nice win but I am less optimistic than I was on 3-0 over the series. Still think we can do it but no longer cocksure!

Strange game and a strange atmosphere.

Fair play to McNamara his subs seemed to work pretty well. Going into next week I would only possibly bring in McGillivray for Burgess. Just to take some of the workload off Hall.

Can anyone give me a link to see the highlights.

Unfortunately wasn't live here in Oz.

I would say Tomkins needs to learn how to catch and tackle to force his way back in.

The NRL will find you out. It's now obvious Tomkins has lots of big handling and defensive errors in him. He has a big test ahead in 2016.

Atmosphere was awful, only time the crowd sang as one was to Sweet Caroline at half time, and embarrassing to see a Mexican wave when the game was at a key juncture, if you are bored by international rugby league I have no words. A band is terrible when it takes away from the atmosphere but if it can bring people together to sing it can really work. Something better needed for next week, day games are usually worse than night ones for atmosphere.

Thought the light show was a good experiment and the anthems and haka were, as always, brilliant. Not sure why England's mascot has been replaced by the world cup mascot, I thought the knight with the full size England logo shield was a great idea. If you want a new one then use both (the laughable girlie bird at the ground appears another rubbish mascot idea too).

England were poor and got lucky with the try off the knee and that the ref spotted the obstruction (see the last NZ game at Headingley for an example of ref's ignoring obstructions) otherwise it could have been all over. I thought our pack was behind the Kiwis at first but was much better with cooper and especially burgess making ground. Our last tackle plays in attacking positions were in the main, very poor and both half-backs were struggling on that front. Most of our game went through forwards in general, Ryan Hall made great ground on early tackle plays but we didn't spread the ball wide to the three quarters enough. Our best play in the four nations last time out was when we played attractive rugby league football, more please. I'd like to see a few personnel changes but this coach doesn't really do that, no real sense in debating it amongst the one eyed club brigade either so I'll just be behind whoever pulls on the shirt as always.

From a perspective of entertainment and seeing more rugby, why did both sides have a rest at every scrum. I don't need to lose 30 seconds of game time ever time there is a knock on or kick to touch, must be sorted for the next game, the game carries on! Let's take the opportunity to show people how fast and uncompromising the game is, this is test football, no time to rest, it should be the highest intensity game of the year!

Massive game next week, biggest audience in terms of TV and in the ground and we need to put on a good show, on and off the field. Can't wait to see England play again, I hate having to wait so long between meaningful internationals, particularly those in this country. Get yourself down to the game and make some noise about it too!

Rooster the full match replay is on Fox Sports 2 tonight at 8pm AEDT

I think they probably did the deal to screen the Tests too late to squeeze it on the live schedule just gone. The next two Tests are live.

My thoughts on the game:

Not a great advert for international rugby league in my opinion, one for the purist. Both teams sluggish, maybe partly due to the Hull November evening conditions? Kiwis looked fantastic at the start but wilted. Hope that next weekend we get a faster game.

Agree on Williams, I hope he and Widdop are allowed to form a partnership together. Not sure if I'd make changes to be honest.