Penalties and errors lose you matches.......... look at the NZ scores:

31 mins, Sam Tomkins error - NZ try
38 mins, G.Burgess penalty - NZ Conv
44 mins, Cudjoe error - NZ try
51 mins, Widdop penalty - NZ conv
79 mins, G.Burgess penalty - NZ try

We say we're improving, yet:

- we lack the compose to finish teams off, and we can't concentrate for a full 80 minutes
- I still think we lack belief due to the NRL supposively being superior
- The coach had a bad rotation policy, which showed when G.Burgess could barely run at the end of the game
- we lack discipline, which is absolutely vital in test rugby!!!!!
- We still lack depth in the backs, with Charnley and Cudjoe not being good enough for test rugby

Its no coincidence we've not won nothing major for 40 years plus................ Hopefully one day it'll come, but for now, I think we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves and saying how well we played and make some changes to the playing personnel and coaching staff:

Sinfield - Had his chance, too old, too slow
Westwood - Had his chance, too old now
Charnley / Cudjoe - Need competition from Reed and Briscoe
Chase - not the type of player you want at international level
Hock - what more can be said, his test career should be over
Hardaker - we need to question his commitment?

McNamara - Has he lost the confidence of the players?

Players to come in:

Brough - he should of been wooed earlier over Sinfield
Bateman - fantastic young backrower
Matty Smith - why was he not picked? the inform scrum half
Myler / Ratchford can also play a part

Am I being harsh, or realistic?

Good post for the most part but I think it's harsh to say England bottled it. The word over here in NZ is that the better team lost on the day. Hard to fault England in many respects but the S. Burgess penalty on the 4th tackle with 60 seconds to go should never have happened, it wasn't even slightly high, it was blatant. England had that game won at that point.

We played well for 79 minutes, NZ played for 80 minutes...... NZ won

We have some good players, but we need to play with more composure, less penalties/errors and for 80 minutes

Good luck in the final I should be a brilliant game

Cheers, Australia will be a tough nut to crack.

Having had chance to watch the game again, blimey England played well. Not a single player had a bad game. Further to my previous post, I feel sorry for George Burgess. He had a cracking game as well as his brother.

Right in his chops wasn't it ?

Very harsh, they didn't bottle it - just failed to clamp down on the unenforced errors! NZ had to come up with one of the most amazing tries ever seen in international rugby to stay in the game and when they threatened to run away with it in the 2nd half the 'bottlers' fought their way back into the game and almost /could have /should have won it! As I say very harsh!

Looking forward to the final next week, if it's half as good as the semi final I'll be happy!

Sinfields decision not to kick the ball into touch and take the scrum with 90 secs left was a bigger crime than Georges penalty imo.

England did play well but not well enough, but every player did not play well,ryan hall twice came off his wing and twice nw zea scored then he drop interception with open run to the line and then he falls over with just one player to stop him scoring, sinfield missd easy kick at goal gave nw zea the ball instead of kicking into touch and then breaks the line missis the tackle they score ,we will never win making such mistakes against top teams

Ban SL clubs from signing overseas stand offs, scrum halfs or hookers! Those are the positions we need better and deeper options in.

I think they panicked in the last minute, a team of winners would have just tackled and let the opposition kick up the field, England started to panic, ended up giving away a penalty, ended up stretch across the park and even the last gasp chance of pushing the try scorer further out by standing him up rather than going for the tackle happened. Push him another 10 ft further out and the kick was missable.

Any other game, Sinfield would have kicked the ball dead wasted a few more seconds forming the scrum! Why he kicked it infield only he knows.
England were the better more composed team for most of the game.

More like send every SL player to the NRL for experience!