Its what you do with possession that matters. You can have the ball in the world but if you dont do anything with it then it counts for nothing.

And that was our problem. We did precisely nothing with it, except for the one Ryan Hall try. That's largely down to halfbacks. As usual!

Those people criticising Tomkins for not catching some of those kicks need to look a little deeper into what the Aussies were doing. There's a reason they were going for the high and short kicks, it's because the fullback is forced to take a standing jump while the Aussies chasers are able to take a running jump.
In that situation, if an Aussie player is competing one on one it's poor play from that attacking player if he doesn't win the ball. What Tomkins had to do is make sure England came up with the ball no matter what and that's what he was doing.

Had England put those kicks up to Boyd he'd have had exactly the same problems. That was shown at Wembley when Reed easily plucked the ball out of the air when challenging him. The problem was England were never in a position to put in those sort of kicks. Our kick chase was never quick enough and the Aussies were so quick to put pressure on the kicker that there was little time to act.

England's defence failed to put pressure on the kickers in the same way, meaning they had all the time in the world to hoof the ball high and have 3 or 4 players ready to challenge Tomkins when the ball was coming down.

hahaha what a embarrassing thread the full england team didnt perform on the day . All 1 man rugby down the middle .end of

What a load of We lost because as usual, once the Australians decided to really crank it up a gear, we couldn't keep up with them, They outplayed us in every single department and to blame that loss on just one player is ridiculous.

I'll admit Tomkin's, along with most of the England side, didn't have a great game. Tomkins struggled with a few bombs, Lets not forget the superb pressure he was put under by the aussie's whilst trying to catch those btw...On the reverse... every single bomb we kicked didn't have an England player anywhere near the aussie receivers applying that same sort of pressue. Considering those mistakes didn't actually cost us any points I don't see where you are coming from.

He had a quiet game but down to the fact that the rest of the backs where pretty woefull aswell, Chase needs to learn to pass the ball more instead of trying to magically get through the aussies on his own.

People keep saying 'oh yeah, get the ball to tomkins more' but tonight, he didnt want the ball. Not since Inglis put him in the stands. He only really committed to catching one bomb. And that was the one he caught. He only made one or two of the weaving runs he normally makes half a dozen of in a match. Im not blaming him for the loss, cos in general we were awful and the aussies have so many top class players in key positions. We didnt pressure the kicker, pressure that fullback when up for a bomb, and in the end the aussies ripped us to shreds.
The best team won.

On a related note, why wasn't Inglis sin binned for that? It was a cowardly attempt to injure Tomkins. Just like the Kiwi last week dropping a forearm onto Tomkins' jaw when he was already on the floor. Absolutely pathetic.

Tomkins was provided with zero protection from his team mates. The first time Australia put a bomb up, with him left alone, it should have been addressed by the players/coaching staff. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't.

Forwards dominated, halves poor = Sam couldnt get in the game.

We never looked like putting a set move on and we havent all tournament.

1 up rugby all game, not one move put on all game, no offloads. Bascially we froze and gave the Aussies to much respect as always, we hardly moved up in defence and when we tackled they were never put on their backs, when they tackled they were all over us holding down.

Not one player can be blamed, we competed but we need a little more to beat Australia, I'm not bothered about the loss I'm more bothered about the progress and publicity RL in England could have made had we won.

BANNED, YOU.

Go and cry about it on the Whinos board like you did last time. I unbanned you last time because you grovelled and put you on a last warning, you've just lost it.

If you can't respond to something you don't agree without throwing an insult you need to grow up (I'm aware of the irony BTW).

It wasn't all Sinfield and Wilkin's fault. Actually I thought Wilkin did ok today. He was average and it's the best I've ever seen him play at any level, by a country mile. Sinfield was poor, as was Chase.

As for Lockers, he's a great player and in an entirely different class to Wilkin.

I said at the game that there'd be someone who would blame Tomkins for the defeat. Good to see that RLFANS doesn't disappoint.

I thought he kicked well, Wilkin and Chase both ballsed up a few kicks.

I thought it was one of the worst long kicking games I've ever seen from Kevin Sinfield, particularly long kicking...he wasnt getting enough length on them or turning the full back or wingers around. Lockyer and Thurston were doing this every time.