Quote: Odemwingie "Glad Tomkins is at FB but those half backs are not good enough to beat saints. I would have played Brown and Robinson just in the hope they might click like they can for Hudds.
Would prefer Burgess at loose, hope they keep him on when Fielden comes on.'"
It's worse than that, I don't think the 3/4s would beat Saints either. We used to have centres who could hold their own against the Aussies and wingers like Robinson and Offiah who were at least the equal of their opponents, but from the start of SL things have been in a steep decline.
For the last 4 or 5 years in particular the English/British 3/4 line up has been very poor but this appears to be plumbing new depths.
Tomkins and the constantly injured Eastmond aside do we currently have any backs who are international standard?
I really hope I'm proved wrong, but I fear that the only way we can avoid a 40+ point pummelling is for the game to be turned into a forward battle. We can have no other strategy.
Lockers will tackle everything that moves (and still get criticised) I'm sure but in the forwards we need massive performances - Graham to be firing, Fielden to step up a couple of gears and the boys playing in the NRL to justify their big reputations.
We need to forget trying to win the game and set out to hurt the Ozzies (legitmately, but with the odd massive punch up if possible!).
We need to face facts: other than the genius of Tomkins we have nothing to offer in the backs whatsoever. The only thing I would want from Robinson is for him to have the best kicking game of his life.
If he does that and his distribution is average but the forwards perform we will stand a chance of keeping the defeat down to an unembarrassing margin.
