I agree that McNamara, on the face of things, seems to have over-reacted. And the Aussies appear to have been more pragmatic. But with Hock I suspect there has been more to it than having a beer. Possibly its was the last straw of a series of events, stretching back to South Africa or even earlier camps?. He does have a track record. We just don't know.

Its always tempting to label a coach as misguided or having poor judgement (not saying you are doing this). Its an easy thought process to drift into, and I have to stop myself labeling him such. The reality is that he is likely to be different.

England started this campaign with all the talk focusing on the off field antics/politics, sadly it has continued and ultimately it will end this way.........

I know that Hock has a lot of potential. But given how well Ferres has played (and his form in SL), wtf was Hock in the squad to start with ? He got known discipline issues, hes a pen machine on the field and his form was non-existent.
His inclusion from the start was a concern to me in that it showed up the coach as being a man who picks on rep not form and appalling man management (see also exclusion of Goulding, Smith, Brough, Crabtree who all had excellent SL seasons ahead of Chase, Ablett and Hock)

However - its knock out time now, so I'm all behind whatever team he puts on the field. The ones he's got out for today is the best he can do with the players he has picked. Heres hoping for an exciting fortnight to come !

Have to say I was not very impressed by that English performance. There will have to be a great improvement next week if we are going to get to the final. Watkins is very poor under the high ball and I fancy New Zealand will target him.

The number of errors England are making is a concern and if we give the Kiwis the amount of chances we gave the French at times it could get quite messy. From a selection POV I'm not sure the McCollorum/Roby experiment worked. Roby is by far the best hooker in this country and if we're going to have an interchange hooker on the bench I think Burrow brings that little bit extra zip around the PTB that may give us the edge, I think though McNamara will go with the same option next week. I'd bring Burgess back into the middle to get him involved more as well.

I don't doubt many people will write England off after tonight's game but, we still have a chance but we need to execute well and concentrate for 80 minutes something we haven't done so far in this comp.

Well that was like a pre season friendly, bloody awful, god knows how much % improvement needed or NZ will wallop us next weekend !

Either this is a wind up, or perhaps the daftest post I have ever read.

How do people think Sam has played? He obviously came into the WC with a lot of hype after his record breaking transfer, and the competition has placed him alongside the Slaters, Haynes and Inglis' of the world.

He hasn't looked so good thus far imo. A quiet tournament.

As he is working with a poor 6/7 combo, he has done ok for me....

I think Sams competition has decreased by one, hasn't Billy Slater aggravated a knee injury thats he's carried all season? The Aussies will need to rely on his poor replacement Greg Inglis....oh wait a minute...

He has been average at best , improvement needed , whoever plays 6/7 .

It's becoming clear that Sam needs to be utilised properly by his coach to be effective, which is not good from his perspective as it means that he can't just slot into any side and work his magic - as NZW may find to their cost (and if people think the New Zealanders are wowed purely by reputation, look at the way so many of them scorn the memory of Denis Betts and Andy Platt, both of whom they expected a lot more of than they got).

From an England POV, McNamara doesn't have the first clue how to use Sam, but then he doesn't have a clue anyway. We can't just pretend that his selection of the England halves isn't a much bigger problem. This is currently like a ball and chain around our team's collective ankle. Sinfield is an average SL player bigged up to a ludicrous degree by the Sky monkeys (so they take their share of the blame as well). Even in a training romp like last night, he was virtually anonymous. As for Chase, he is a complete individualist who always does his own thing and contributes nothing to the sort of structured attack you need at this level.

And yet, we've got Widdop and Burrow on the sideline. It's bewildering and infuriating in equal measure.

Believe it or not as a Leeds fan I am not one of Sinfield's biggest fans. However to state that he was anonymous last night is unfair. He made his fair share of tackles and linked well with his forwards. It always makes me laugh how club loyalty comes in to international team selection. Tomkins is not playing well because of the half backs who don't happen to come from Wigan! For me McIllouram offered nothing but then again he doesn't play for Leeds. Neither did Farrell, neither did Chase. We tend to see what suits out club preferences.

I agree with you that MM didnt add anything, but I feel that he only got the gig because of the injury to Burrow.
Again Faz isnt World Cup semi standard either - but is Ablett ? SamT has done all that he can, but is suffering because we appear only have 2 plans. Either give it to a Burgess and see if they can steam roller in, or give it to Sam and see if he can create a try for the backs.
For Wigan he hardly ever kicks and chimes in and out of the line when there is an opportunity. For England he appears to be trying to do too much. Much of this is down to the fact that we dont have a balanced pair of halves who can kick us around the park and create gaps for the centres/2nd rows.
There is where the coach has to shoulder the responsibility of not having a system that offers options over the park, or picking players that work together as a good unit.

He was no were near MOM but i don't think he had a poor game as he did set up two tries.

Sinfield is a good player but never a number 7, Chase offers no structure as others have previously said this is the main issue with what could be a very god England team.