I'll go with this if this team had played the Aussie match we would have beat them and be in the final

The Final on Saturday will be special not least because both Oz and NZ are great teams to watch.

I honestly think it will be close but NZ never give up as we saw today. Looking forward to it.

So having admitted that England played well for 79 mins you're having a go at an individuals mistake... its a team sport , they go on the field as a team and come off as one. No complaints from me.Proud of the performance today ,from each and everyone of them.

Watkins you mean?

I don't think any one player can be blamed for us not getting to the Final , for me every player gave his all , and the look on their faces at the end of the game to its own story , if giving individual penalties away , was blamed for losing or winning games , you only have to look at Leighs NRC win against Fax at Blackpool

Dylan Nash gave away a late penalty for a high tackle on Stu Donlan , we went upfield and the rest is History , Fax fans don't say Nash won the Cup for Leigh

.

Ok I'll amend my post, hows this,

"We, "England" played well for 79mins and each and every one of them played their socks off. When "we" had a chance to close the game by kicking for a scrumdown and counting down the clock we chose to give them another set of 6 to attack us. It could have fallen on any player to kick to touch on the 5th tackle and given a choice I think Sinfield would have been the best player for it to go to (although as long as it went in touch it didn't matter). Even my partner who knows sod all about RL was screaming for a player to put it dead. Ah well, still proud for the lads EVERYONE of them and they played their hearts out.

After reading how we had the wrong players in the wrong positions and how the coach couldn't coach the national team recently i feared for our RL pride before the match. I tuned in to watch the game and was stunned at how fast, skilful, committed and bruising we played. I thought Steve Mac got the game plan spot on the reff was even handed throughout the game and yes some mistakes were made by both teams. I felt sick as a dog when the Kiwis got the last try but overwhelmed with the passion and quality of the match, which beforehand i didn't think i would be,

Yesterday was a brilliant day at wembley and any RL fan who chose not to go, note chose, when tickets in club wembley were £20 need to have a real think about if they want this great sport to succeed or fail
Tens of thousands of southerner s made the crowd what it was and that is why we need a proper RL club in the capital, I spoke to plenty who were in awe of what they had seen and it is from them we can expand our sport not the whingeing has beens pontificating over the demise of Leigh or RL in general to whoever will listen
Brilliant brilliant day

A bit like Leigh in play off games I guess.

Well, I'm afraid I'm in the "bottled it" camp.

Yes we played like heroes for 79mins+. Yes it was a fabulous game, among the best I've ever watched. But having taken the initiative, let it slip and then fought back to regain it we found a way to lose with 30secs on the clock.

Seen it too many times before, usually against the Aussies - e.g. Ricky Stuart Old Trafford 1990, Darren Lockyer Huddersfield 200?

Always the story goes "We're getting there, next time it'll be different" but we're still waiting. Is it 1970 we last won an international tournament against the ANZACS?

yes I agree we have been saying this for last 40yrs,we played great but not good enough again,its happened so many times now you get used to it,we hadour chance yesterday but we failed.and I don't think hall playedup to standard.

Shouldn't lose a game at that level with 30 seconds (or even 2 minutes to go) - its not bottling it IMHO but it is taking poor options at the most critical time, it has happened a lot in RL and its part of the game.
The team take credit for win so the team take the flak with a loss, individuals who played good or bad will know that.

It was a huge opportunity blown spectacularly and in a few months time no-one will remember who got beat in a Semi and its that bit that we as England (or GB) need to get over as we will always be 'nearly good enough' which in effect means not good enough.

Plenty of positives though and lets face it for circa 79mins and 30 seconds it was a great game for the majority of English fans.