I think if you want to drop anybody fairly after tonights performance out of the two halfbacks it would have had to have been Maguire. I do however feel Maguire can do far far better than he did tonight.

I actually thought Shenton went alot better then i'd have thought he would but i still don't fancy him against the Aussies. I'd put Eastmond at left centre and tell him to keep attacking Justin Hodges who strikes me as a player that prefares attacking to defending and wouldn't relish a clash with Eastmond.

I'm not expecting any changes though tbh because i think Smith will want to give them all a fair crack of the whip.

Scott Moore looks the player most likely to be dropped if anyone.

How can it be a double movement? He was was tackled but not held, so he was titled to move the ball forward. A perfectly legal try.

I think he was dropped halfway through the first half!

Did i say it was, or that it could have been called as, as it has been in other games - it's try situation that is not 100% clear cut, as you can tell if you look at Mylers face, they can be given or not given it depends on the Ref at that split moment in time.

Shaun Briscoe also seemed to get the mid game axe but that maybe was more to do with them wanting to get Eastmond involved.

Eastmond must play 80minutes for me next week but i'd have him at centre either for Shenton or for Briscoe with Lee Smith moving to Fullback.

Yes, I thought that too because he seemed to have an ok game (for an England player, I mean!).


Eastmond has played at FB, centre and wing as well as 7 but he doesn't (yet?) have the organisational skills for 7 so I would play him at one of the other spots. He may be wasted on wing though as he can make tries as well as score them and of course loves to shimmy. Probably either centre or FB. I'm well impressed with the way he has improved defensively since his shoulder operation. I think he has sorted out his best tackling style.

Eastmond straight in at centre for me. Dont get the hype around this Shenton.

Too lightweight for me and i'd worry about him in defence against the Aussies. That may sound strange considering i'd put Eastmond in at centre but unlike Shenton he'll keep his opposite number at least as busy in defence as he'll be himslef.

I think Ryan Atkins is the better long term bet at this level due to his sheer size. He has alot of work to do on other parts of his game but he at least has a natural base.

Exactly. He's paper weight in defence and offers no threat at all in attack. Atleast with Eastmond he is unpredictable and has a creative spark even if he isnt a natural centre.

It's be a huge risk to put all 3 of Eastmond, Tomkins and Myler in the starting line up next week but we've got nothing to lose and the chances are we'd catch the Aussies by suprise with them.

They won't know diddly squat about any of them and if they don't respect them with ball in hand they'll get burned because all 3 have the skill and pace to trouble the worlds best defence.

He got a bad knock early on did not look great when he was going off.

mcguire would be the perfect fullback if he had the bottle to take the high ball under pressure and commit to one on one tackle. his tries are mainly in a supporting role. for me tomkins and myler should have played and smith bottled making a tough call.

If a player isn't held in a tackle, he is deemed to have broken the tackle and therefore he can get up and play on. In Myler's case he didn't to get up and play on, all had to do was push the ball forward for a try.

I agree by the look on his face he wasn't sure if he had score or not, but he is a young player and properly does not know all the rules of the game.

The tackle can be complete 'Tackled: Grounded' though if he is held by a player (this means physical not a held call) and the ball or the hand or arm carrying the ball touches the ground, which it quite clearly does as he hits the deck with Greenshields on him (Greenshields has his hands going round Mylers shoulders so he clearly fulfils the held criteria).

He is carrying the ball in his right hand as he starts to get held, then as he's heading towards the ground he brings his left hand round so both his hands are holding the ball so he doesn't loose it in the impact, he then impacts the ground his ball carrying arm is in contact with the ground and Greenshields is on is on his back - tackle complete under clause Grounded

It's after this Greenshields rolls with him and loses contact with him.

Tackles only count as broken in a grounded situation if the tackling player loses contact with the player with the ball before he is grounded, there's no length of time holding him element to the rules in that situation, he's grounded right away because Greenshields is on his back.

You can count the tackle not complete if you feel that the player was 'sliding', at which point the tackle is only complete once the slide ends. It then comes down to whether that particular ref feels a slide needs suitable forward momentum to class as a slide, a majority sideways roll may or may not be classed as a slide

This is why I said sometimes they are given sometimes not it depends on the ref's view of the contact of opposing player and the man with the ball as the ball or his hand or arm carrying it comes into contact with the ground.

Like i said, there's definitely a case to be made for it not being a try, hence my comment that we should at the time have considered ourselves lucky to go ahead.

I praised Myler in having the Rugby wits to keep on moving and then edge the ball over the line in case the referee didn't feel the tackle was complete - smart lad and a lot would have frozen unsure what to do.

Still it's an interesting debate.