Quite. We never really had any structure in attack but relied on offloads a hell of a lot. Outside backs didnt receive any quality ball although Eastmond tried to change that 2nd half.

With Briscoe on Oz 26 England 0.
With Briscoe off Oz 0 England 16.

Whats the argument ?

With Smith playing centre Oz 26 England 0.
With Smith not playing centre Oz 0 England 16.

Whats the argument ?

I really don't think Briscoe did a lot wrong. The problems on that side defensively were not down to Briscoe, nor do I think they were down to 1 player specifically.

Briscoe > Smith > McGuire > Peacock just didn't work as a combination defensively, I don't think Peacock is mobile enough these days to cover 2nd row and McGuire and Smith were always going to struggle as a pairing defensively without cover from the 2nd row.

Hall > Shenton > Tomkins > Ellis was always going to be a much much better defensive line, evidenced by a lot of frustration from Justin Hodges and Jarryd Hayne on the day.

Sadly I think Briscoe will however cop the flack and get dropped.

Tom Briscoe got made to look like a scapegoat by Tony Smith which was totally unfair imo.

I didn't really notice the lad do anything wrong and much more experienced players would have had a similar first half playing outside Laurel and Hardy.

Thanks everyone for their opinions it's good to get a reasonably balanced unbiased view..
Think the view is he didn't do to much wrong although some do question his initial selection.
Most of the 'experts' at the BBC seemed to agree that he had done nothing wrong. Hopefully it hasn't dented his confidence to much and Im sure he will feature again in the England set up in the not to distant future if not this tournament.

With Australia playing 1st half Oz 26 England 0
With Australia not playing 2nd half Oz 0 England 16

What's the argument

Poor decision by Tony Smith. Confidence must be shattered. What lessons can he take from this? "If my centre plays awful, I'll get dropped and he'll get my position". Absolute joke. Smith played poor, Smith should have been taken off.

Briscoe didn't stand a chance with McGuire and Smith inside him. What could he do, really? How could he have made a difference in the game?

Tony Smith in major man-management shocker.

How do you think Briscoe would have coped if after 10 minutes he'd have been shifted to centre with Smith taking the wing spot?

Serious question. I've not seen that much of him but surely he couldn't have done a worse job then Smith.

I've not seen much of him at centre so couldn't say. He does prefer it apparently, but that doesn't necessarily make him a centre. He's got the number 3 shirt at Hull next year though, so we'll see next year. For now though, he was brought into the squad as a winger, and with his experience I don't think it would be too good an idea to ship him around different positions at the highest level he'll play at.

Lee Smith was defo the one at fault in my opinion, Tom stayed on his winger, Both Briscoes were given no chance by the inept Smith and McGuire.

McGuire was poor in defence. So was Briscoe and so was Lee Smith. However, blaming Smith, McGuire and Briscoe is missing the point entirely.

The real question is, where was the ruddy back row every single time the ball went to England's right in the first half? Watch the video and you'll see - absolutely nowhere to be seen. So few posters seem to have picked this up, and I've no idea why.

All Australia had to do to create an overlap in the first half was run a couple of plays down the right. Result? England's entire pack on one half of the field. So, Australia, having some excellent passers of the ball and in Slater and Inglis two of the very best broken field runners you will ever see, ship the ball left fast and have an overlap virtually from the centre of the field with Slater and Inglis able to toy with the defence. Not helped with McGuire not being very strong defensively and Lee Smith quite simply not being a centre.

You simply cannot defend like that at this level. And it stuns me to see England play that way yet again. Watch NZ against Oz or Origin, or basically any NRL game and you will rarely - if ever - see a defensive line so hopelessly out of position for such a long period.

I for one am fed up with England playing below their ability. But it doesn't help if we all follow the 'pack is good, backs are bad' mantra - the pack was awful in the first half. Yet again they'll be able to say 'it wasn't me who missed those tackles out wide'. No, because you were half a pitch away from being able to be in a position to miss a tackle, wondering why there was no forward to tackle.

I don't see how Tom Briscoe could be poor in defence when he had no-one to tackle. They seemed to have a nice lovely channel between McGuire and Smith to go down each time before he got anywhere near!

I'm not disagreeing with that either. But McGuire and Smith - as bad as they looked - would not be the only combination to be turned inside out by Slater/Inglis in that much space.

Because for some reason Danny Mcguire and Lee Smith have become the anti christ all of a sudden, and some posters on here just like spouting off. Putting a prop at second row to defend on Inglis' side was a disaster waiting to happen, Mcguire, Smith and Briscoe had no chance without some defensive help from the inside.