Quote Rob Wire="Rob Wire"It was a very good England win but i won`t be getting carried away personally because i think the conditions were a decent leveller tonight, i thought Sinfield was excellent, it was good coaching from Tony Smith to play Sinfield at hooker with having 2 young, inexperienced half backs, Sinfield`s leadership and organisation was invaluable tonight.
Sam Tomkins certainly ruffled Benji Marshall`s feathers, he was fairly anonymous all game after that. If we get similar conditions next week it will be anyone`s game as wet conditions should blunt the speed at which the aussies move the ball and it will turn into a battle down the middle similar to most of tonights game, it will be who controls the ball better and makes the least mistakes.'"
It rains an awful lot in NZ, Rob. The players will be familiar with playing in those conditions.
Nothing to do with conditions, our pack simply got on top of theirs. End of discussion. Didn't think either backline was too flash, it was whoever got on top in the middle, would go on to win. I think the last World Cup, when NZ did a job on us, it was in wet conditions then, we just weren't good enough that night, we were last night. We were in danger of getting reffed out of it in the first half but did well during that period.
I don't think we should 'downplay' this win, far from it. It was the World Champions out there, who drew with Australia a fortnight back, enjoy the win, in fact talk it up, why not, we're all quick to criticise defeat, we should celebrate success in equal measure, not look for ways to 'dumb it down'.
