I was watching thanks! But your arguments not that he went missing is it? You expect one player to win the game on their own.

Not win the game on his own, no. But produce some magic to lift the team, make a break, chip over the defence and regather, something like that. He wasn't able to do this because the forwards got battered and the pivots were shut down.

What I'm saying is maybe after a couple more years at fullback he'll be able to go, "right this game is mine" and lift the side from what seems like certain defeat, I believe he will be good enough. We saw in the WCC he wasn't able to produce his best and we've seen it for England against the Aussies and Kiwis.

Simply saying there's nothing wrong with his defence doesn't make it so. The first tackle he made where he pulled makinson into touch...it was touch and go around the head. If he hadn't gone as high as that, he would not have made the tackle. The first Wellens try: with better positioning and more size he should have been able to tackle Wellens and bring him down before the line but his size counts against him...lets not forget that is wellens is slower than your nan and yet Tomkiins still couldn't get close enough for an effective tackle.

Regarding England, Tomkins at fullback will simply be ignored by the australians and Kiwis when they are attacking as they will run over him should he be in the right position...undoubtedly, they will think differently about him when we are in possession. He is a fantastic prospect at half or stand off, so lets play him there.

Also think its unfair to expect him to bail you out each time it gets tough. Thought he tried lots of things on Sunday (kick over for free kick, trying to score himself, running well with the ball) and perhaps others should follow his example. He worked hard despite a knock to his shoulder just before half time that clearly affected him as he was less interested in the second half. In fact, he seems to take on too much: the terrific try saving tackle from Lomax should not have been an option had tomkins not tried to stretch out...if you look where he landed, the ball would have been easily grounded if he had stuck it under his ribs and just dived over.

Back to thread, Lomax was sensational in both attack and defence

I think this is where the game was won, in the half backs. They were quicker in getting the ball away and more alert in exploiting any gaps down the middle. Deacon had one of the worse games I,ve seen him play this season.

Deacs did have a poor game, he's been playing very well consistently this season (more so than last when he was injured for parts of it).

I've watched almost every game this year and have seen Sam produce some excellent one on one cover tackles, on forwards and backs. Wellens' try was nothing to do with Sam's positioning but a shocking missed tackle from Hansen and Deacon, Tomkins was pushing out wide and had to quickly step off his left foot and Wellens was diving over by the time he reached him. The fullback has to have confidence in the defence, he cant just loiter behind every contact in case there is a bust tackle.

I hope the aussies and kiwis do take that attitude to him tbh!

In the same way saying Sam is a good defender doesnt make it so, neither does making a list of what qualities a fullback should possess and saying Sam doesnt have them! I think this is where a lot of people's criticisms of him come from. Going they should take a high ball, he's not good at that...cover tackling, no...etc.

Everyone is blaming the halves, I saw very little support overall. Dummy runners were few and far between and options were limited, at times I felt like I was watching Wigan under Noble.

Hopefully it was just one of those games and we get back to it this week.

I actually - VERY - sarcastically shouted bring back Noble at one point as we played yet another drive up the middle in that first half.
It really was as poor as those days in attack

People are complaining about how badly our halves played but are missing the fact that the running off the ball was very poor. If players are not running the right lines at speed then there isn't much a half back can do. If they are doing that, which when we're not so tired we do, then players like Finch and Deacon are able to do a lot more.