poor from Ryan tonight....oh well..move on to next week.

he did have a shocker

Seems McBanana isn't only a England coach but he is also a bad motivator of players (even out of the international scene)

Also Atkins is a better than Goulding or Carmont

He'll learn from that tonight. He's still a long way from the finished article, but consider how far he's come in the short time he's been here, he'll be the best centre in the league in a few years time.

Has played better than he did tonight.

Everyone has an off game

Atkins IS a fine player...I don't really care what anyone else thinks....especially the muppet running England.

He got shown up tonight by Watkins. He's not in the same class as Watkins who in my opinion will be world class. Can't see it being too long before union or NRL come sniffing for him.

Atkins is still a very good player, he looked like he was playing under a bit of pressure tonight.

he just had a poor game.... along with everyone else in the team.

its no big deal.

There's some strange substances being smoked/sniffed/injected somewhere tonight, eh fellas.

Atkins was average, like quite a few players, only one of two good ones, e.g. Hill.

Higham was bad.

Carvell was very very BAD tonight.

So, we had a couple of ok players, 13 average, and two poor players, with one decent player going off, and three very influential players in the stand - and we lost by 8, away at the champions. The scenario 4 years ago would of been a 50 point drubbing.....

I don't really see why Watkins in particular seems to have been singled out in comparrison to Atkins. Both are quality centres. I would be more wondering why wellham is in there instead of Atkins, who is miles behind Atkins for me. Watkins is a cracking prospect and deserves to be in there along with atkins

Agreed... watkins is quality..... i dont think anyone is making a direct accusation at watkins..... its obvious there has been a fall out between atkins and mcnamara... first sign of a coach out of his depth.

I suppose it's just because we were playing each other this week that all the media seemed to highlight Watkins and Atkins and neglected others who are worse than both the above. More me at this time they should be the centres for England. I can see the point in including hardaker as I think he will have a big future in the game, and for me both hardaker and bridge would be in front of wellham