On an international scale, Roby is far better than decent. He is top 3.

Problem is England side is based around Sinfield and thats the problem he is not international class at 13 and 7. Where Lockers is and most SL sides have a better 7 than him. England will fail to get to the World Cup final with Mcnamara in charge.

Name a top 6 side in SL who would take him as their coach instead of who they have. The side is good the coach is a joke and to let Brough go so he can allow Burrows in was the worst decision he has done. Brough is not international class but he is better than Chase or Sinfield and could have gone in as either 6 or 7.

Not too much to disagree with there, but I do think the time for bellyaching is more than way past & we should be simply getting behind the team & pushing them on instead of winging who should be here or there (I refer m'lud to my previous point).

But we all like a good moan about stuff we can't control don't we.

great start Banana

15-14 down. Charnley knock on near own line to give the game away.
Sloppy all round by the sounds of it. Hopefully it'll be a case of shaking the cobwebs off before next week.

And here was me thinking that Roby could win the game on his own, given that some think him to be soooo good.

Unfortunately due to recent Wigan Warriors success some of the players might still be in detox mode due to amount of celebration drinks they have consumed and maybe will take them another week to get over. As a Saints fan you will have forgotten what success means apart from beating Wigan once a year.

Took 4 weeks after the Challenge Cup for them to get over it but Lockers took 8 weeks almost.

I'd have thought that even you would realise by now that your attempts to rile me will all be in vain. I could probably count 20 times you've tried to pick a fight and derail a thread. Normally I ignore you but for once I'll give you some advice - grow up and stop boring me.

Back to topic (again), I'm sure there'll be plenty knee-jerk reactions to the result but I'm not overly worried. The intensity today was that of a training session by all accounts. I'm sure next Saturday will be completely different.

I expect Watkins, Roby and Charnley all to start and hopefully O'Loughlin will be fit.

Great post.

I doubt there will be much kneejerkery here.. Only a friendly, and probably played in atrocious conditions at times. But of course you are right, MM not good enough, and Charnley lost us the game, glad we can agree on that..

What a dark day for English RL.

No excuses, losing to the italians at rugby league is nothing short of laughable.

It is laughable. But in a weeks time we could be celebrating a win over Australia. I wouldn't read too much into what happened today.

But fans will and the media will. These guys went to South Africa 1st class to train in near perfect conditions - then come back and serve up this dross. Mcbanana has already said their minds were on next week. Very unprofessional start and it can't be ignored. If it was a narrow win, that would be fine but we lost to Italy ffs...

I agree it's disheartening but you get this a lot in friendlies.

I am confident that the occasion will bring out the best in us next week.