Edit.
Egg on face. Change Burrows for Widdop.

A few words of caution to England fans who dont watch NRL:
The Burgess bros do lose the ball a lot: mainly because their game is based on dominating in the collision and they like to get up and play the ball asap. This encourages the "cheats" to leave a hand or knee in the tackle- even though the rules clearly state the tackler must back off and not interfer.
Also, Slater and Cronk have a trick where on the last tackle Cronk will release a bomb and Slater will not track the ball directly but runs straight to the fullback and "reads" the FB. When the FB leaps for the catch Slater also leaps and spins and somehow wins the ball, effectively he uses the FB's actions to win the ball - its genius. Expect these tricks happen.

Get Westwood off he is a friggin liability!!

After watching today Id personally make the following changes. Assuming Lockers is fit, him to 13 and S Burgess to second row along side Ferres who I was impressed with. Westwood out and Farrell taking his spot on the interchange. Mossop out, and Graham in. Mossop was by far the poorest performing prop of the Burgess boys and Hill. Sinfield will always make the squad and if Mcnamara chooses to play him at 7 then Widdop needs to start at 6. Not move a player who should is a loose forward, who has played 6 all season to scrum half and interchange him to 9. Bin Chase and have Mcilorum either to start or off the bench to spell the rook.

I thought Chase was very ineffectual today too. Mind, it's the worst Ozzie half back partnership I think I've seen in a long while thank God.

In a way I think its a blessing we didnt win today - theres no way we would beat them twice in one competition so its better to save it for a knock out stage eh



Our strongest team in my opinion would be as follows:

1. Tomkins
2. Charnley
3. Cudjoe
4. Watkins
5. Hall
6. Widdop
7. Sinfield
8. Graham
9. McIlorum
10. G.Burgess
11. S.Burgess
12. Ferres
13. O'Loughlin

14. Roby
15. Hill
16. Mossop
17. Westwood

Chase is massively over rated - did he even play today? The fact that hes crap and not english just adds insult to injury. McIlorum to start and rough the opposition up then bring on roby to do the damage to a tired defence. George and Sam Burgess are just unbelievable, so impressed with their performances, hopefully they can play like that every week in this competition. Our bench let us down today IMO but that one looks a lot stronger. I'd love to see that team play Australia in the final. Yet again though I just wish we had a decent coach.

Mossop and Westwood should not even make the bench.

Farrell + one in. Roby to start. Showed he was a class act today.

Bingo, apart from the fact it was Inglis who gathered the Cronk bomb.

I may be wrong but I thought that during the commentary someone said that O'Loughlin was out for the series.

If that is the case I would go the whole hog and in one of the next couple of matches and before the serious stuff starts I would do the following.
Hardaker to fullback, Widdop to standoff, Sam to scrumhalf and Sinfield to loose forward just to get some creativity in the team.
There will be no chance to experiment when New Zealand and the Aussies come later in the series.

Thought we played well but feel that they had another gear or two.

I do feel though that saying as though they were given 10 points from stupid play/poor decisions (the Josh call, Ablett stupidly taking Slater out and the chatting back at 22 16) that with Lockers and Graham in there that we could turn New Zealand over.

Why is Sinfield in the team, oh he is the captain, Chase disappeared, Westwood still trying cheap shots, Burgess brothers very impressive, they are big units now, MM has got to start.

Before the game my concern wasn't how good the Aussies are, we know how good they are, I was concerned our pack would be dominated and we'd be clueless with ball in hand. After today I feel confident the ability is there, the pack when back to full strength is more than a match for any team. We just need some belief, keep playing with ball in hand and cut out the silly errors. Do that and we have a chance.