Decent summing up.

Lomax has had his knockers I (oooer missus) but I agree with you he looks like he was born to play FB

Do the Burgess brothers come as a pack of three ? I think the twins inspire me less than would Cox & England being included in the team.

i have felt a bit sorry for liam watts watching the Burgii' being inneffective

Taylor deserves a shirt ahead of either Tom or George. Widdop looked a far better player when paired with Smith. Matty may not set the world on fire but his guidance and in play kicking saved us in the test series against the Kiwis. He's solid and gets the job done. I'd like to see Ratch feature but I cant see him being picked and can't see him being any more effective than Gale in the halves. At a push I'd put him a centre. Watkins is world class but after the season Leeds have had I can (sort of) see why he's currently playing the way he is. Percival had a good game IMO and should be a sure starter over Sargenson. Like him or hate him but Farrell also HAS to start in the back row. Whether that's at the expense of Bateman or Whitehead I'm not sure. I'd be inclined to take him over Bateman.

If we don't think Watkins will improve, is it worth playing Bateman in the centres instead? Which side did he play centre at Wigan?

I think we'll see Williams and Widdop this weekend, Widdop hasn't really impressed me that much but without him we were shocking.

Also on a Four Nations note if not England, I'm still in awe of that try by Russell... We need to get the ball out to him on the edges more often!

Moving Bateman into the 3/4s ain't a bad idea.
We could get another forward in the team. We're going to need it.
However, we need an x-factor guy...the only one is Ratchford.

Halves are an issue but centres even more.
ONeil and Ferguson were superb on the right side last week.
And you've got the small matter of Inglis on the left.
We may be able to match them up front but not in the backs.
I'd love to see Bateman and Ratch in the centres but cant see it happening.
Probably be Percival and Watkins. The latter has done very little so far.

He got the ball on the edge on several occasions during the grand final and came up with sod all

How true my web footed friend but will Bennett have the nouse to play him & is Ratchford's utility tag getting in the way of selection. Bennett seems be to following the tried & tested formula that if you've played NRL you are the greatest & i wonder if he is reluctant to try anything different. Ratchford's style of play & being unknown to the Aussies could blow them apart.

Either way Id rather England loose but be entertained than see them win but bored senseless with 5 drives and a kick to the corner. Watching England in this 4 nations has been like watching paint dry.

I think we just need to win even if it's ugly.
Bit like us in the gf.

do any pubs show premier sports round town

FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE BY SCOTLAND

BRILLIANT

THEY SHOWED ENGLAND HOW TO DO IT

Conditions awful, but the same for both teams.

The best match of the tournament by far.

Is there anything else Sam Burgess can do to help Australia beat England?

The standard of our passing is absolutely loving atrocious

Where's Clark? I've not seen one good bit of exploiting of space behind the ruck once today

I came on here, straight after the WCC games 2015, and said we (Super League) do the basics of RL, appallingly.

I'm not talking about knocking on with the line at their mercy, or forced passes.. I'm talking about the bread and butter passes. You have a set of six tackles, and in each set, you can guarantee there'll be at least 3 tackles where a pass will be round the receiver's ears/knees. The others will be dipping into player's hands. Counter this to the Aussie's passing. Crisp, and straight to players hands, at pace.

The sooner English RL gets back to basics, and we do some basic drills of passing and tackling, instead of doing video analysis and personal development classes, we'll ALWAYS be behind Australia (and NZ).

Quite simple, really.

Unless Clark is injured ,Bennett has made a major boo boo with his team selection today.He may play in the NRL but Hodgson seems pretty one dimensional to me.

Positives from the series though are Perceval, Lomax & McGillivray & i thought Williams & Brown were our best halves .

The saddest thing about today, was Burgess' post match interview, when he rolled out that old line "we weren't that far away"....AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Stop blowing smoke up your collective ar5eholes, and look at the scoreboard. We ARE that far away. Scoreboards don't tend to lie. I'd say the margin of defeat was appropriate. We were second best at everything.

p.s. If that was a Test Match level of performance from Widdop (especially first half, what a display of atrocious "kicking", that was), I'll eat my (and anybody elses) hat.

Pish.

our game as gone dull since this man as taken over

The defensive nature of the Aussie's game maybe an efficient way of winning games but I'm afraid it bores me to death. Today's game only came to life once the result was determined. I'd much rather we played an open game and entertained rather than trying to match Australian tactics. Go down with all guns blazing.

Absolute garbage! I want us to play to win, if that means grinding out that win then fine.

If we win it by playing expansive rugby great if not the armwrestle can also be entertaining.

Please elaborate on how expansive entertaining unstructured rugby has been successful for us as a nation and ourselves as a club in our quest for grand final success.....

Knowing when you can play expansive rugby is the key and when to break from structured sets.

WB's use of substitutes is strange but he is just getting started and knows what he is working with, he has eluded to it plenty in pre match interviews we need to learn how to win these games, we have the personal but fall short. I think there will be some changes made for the wc, playing in the nrl should jot just mean that u get into the England team.

We really don't have the personnel. The forwards match up OK-ish, but we are nowhere bloody near their standard in the backs, especially in the halves.

Get ready for a dull ride, fellas.

I was never a fan of Mcnamara. He'd just won us a series, yet we'd let him go. We all know Bennett's cV, yet the Aussie's didn't want him, because they preferred Meninga, so Bennett goes for our job, so he can try to get even. Great. Snapping up cast Off's, just to give him a chance to massage his ego.

We'd have been better bringing back Nobby Noble, our last coach to beat Australia. That's appalling. Not beating them in a decade.

Today we played a poor man's NRL style game, and surprise surprise, we came up short.

The only chance we have of beating them, is to play an old fashioned SL style of rugby. But our (current SL) game style is so stifled, and NRLlite, we don't stand a chance.

As I said earlier, we need to go back to basics, and learn to pass and tackle properly. It may take a couple of seasons, but so be it. When we do this, play as a passing team. Not an NRL boreathon, where little risks are taken.

I fear Bennett will merely see his substantial (it won't be cheap) contract out, and we won't be any better than we were a month ago.

I find it hard to watch our wingers n centres taking tackle 1-3 from our own line, this was happening in the first few minutes, we need our pack to be taking these balls in to gain meters. Australia team had props doing the drives and they made yards.

Not having Clark to come on was a bad call fast play the ball or not a change of pace he can inject was needed. We had opportunities and there were periods of the game where we could have gotten on top but failed to capitalise.

Centres I'd look to Bateman and currie going forward they add size and strength and both are ball playing second rowers and had experience at centre leaving second row for Cooper Whitehead watts n Taylor to battle it out.

I agree about the basics our passing has been terrible especially from dummy half the amount of balls from ptb that have been way off mark is an issue.

Its been a predictable tournament with Scotland being the shining light with their performances against both us and nz showing improvement. I do think that we have the personal to beat both Australia and new Zealand. despite the players stating that they don't put the Australians o some kind of pedestal and believe that they are the best, they do and whilst there's not that confidence and refusal to lose were pretty much beat before a ball is even played