Im glad hes gone for John over Farrell, John will ruffle more feathers. To be fair you know you will get a solid game from Farrell 40 tackles and some good hit ups just think John has that extra toughness needed to compensate against bigger opponents

same old England, in close matches you need your best squad on the park and yet again we have a few who just shouldn't be in, and that makes all the difference in close matches , lomax did ok but lacks the spark imo, Watkins average,whitehead average, cooper widdop likewise,

Effort was good, just silly mistakes again.

Personnel wise, I'm not a Watkins fan, I just don't see why he's raved about. Sarge needs to pass the ball, the left foot step is too predictable. Lomax needs to make that tackle, at the top level you just can't miss them and expect to not be slated for it. Sam had a good game apart from the two off loads.

All that said there is still plenty of improvement and we do have a chance against the Aussies if we complete our sets and not gift them possession.

Replace Sarginson with Percival and England would have won that game

that should have been the case anyway

Why is Watkins getting so much criticism? I agree he was pretty average but I don't he he really got opportunities to shine (same for Whitehead). Sarginson got far more good ball and squandered most of it, and also made a poor defensive read for their first try, yet he is barely being criticised at all.

Lomax was good for most of the game but really let himself down with a poor 1 on 1 tackle attempt.
Despite what I said earlier about Batemans aggression I thought he did look a little small out there today.

Bateman weren't his usual self, Sarginson went into headless chicken mode where he forgets his job is to put his winger away, the halves were none existent, Hodgeson gave his passes slightly late time and time again, we allowed the kiwis to lie all over us.

When we were handsing the ball out we had no inside runners so the Kiwis just slid across and we didn't utilise the offloads as scoots which would work well against a tiring Kiwi team especially when we had a hooker on the bench.

Next week I'd change Sarginson for Percival, Bateman for Farrell, Gale for Williams. We will put a decent score on Scotland but will give the team to gel ready for the Australia game.

Positives - McGilvary and the pack.

We've seen this year what Sarginsons best position is and it isn't at centre. He was really poor today and should lose his place to Percival next week. His Centre partner is lucky there are any other viable options because Watkins continues to be more hype then substance. Where his huge rep has come from I'm not too sure at all (Sinfield described as second to only Inglis as the worlds best centre pre match which nearly made me fall of my chair).

Both halves were poor with Gale especially struggling in both attack and in defence (I've not see a guy get bumped off as many tackles in a long while). I was really dissapointed with the bench as well. I thought the Burgess twins and Daryl Clark really struggled and we need far more from them.

I'd make a couple of changes for next week (Percival for Sarginson, Williams for Gale and Farrell for T Burgess) and line up-

Lomax
McGillvary Watkins Percival Hall
Widdop Williams
Hill Hodgson Graham
Farrell Whitehead S Burgess

G Burgess Cooper Bateman Clark

Hodgson didn't really stamp his authority on the game for me, especially when he came on for that second spell. Just didn't get it in his hands enough. Widdop and Gale just too pedestrian for me, a far cry from and Edwards and Gregory combo. Just far too predictable near their line and neither a game-changer.Thought Cooper did well when he came on. If we'd had a Newlove or Senior out there at centre I'd feel much more confident of us doing something.

Bateman took a bang to the head early doors and probably wasn't right afterwards. Would go some way to explaining a below par performance. Size is not an issue with him much as it wasn't with Billy McGinty all those years ago.

dont think he was poor thought both packs negated each other with some very good defense

First comment I have is regarding the Burgess twins. They simply make too many basic errors at this level. When a game is going to be as tight as Test matches should be their ability to lose focus and poor ball retention will always kill us. It was the same in the World Cup Semi.

Sarg was woeful needs dropping. Bateman unfortunately is nullified at this level in the pack due to the size and strength of the opposition. Percivall for me is also too lightweight for this level so I would like to see Bateman playing centre.

Apart from the interception I thought Widdop played reasonably well and Gale did ok too, however I think we missed a trick not playing Williams who is a more natural runner and takes on the line which could have been crucial as the big Kiwi's tired.

Had we had a Newlove or Senior out there we would have been out of sight by half-time , sadly what we have is nowhere near that quality

We lost too much intensity when Graham and Hill went off, Gale was ineffectual and Sarginson bombed two tries.

Overall kicking game was poor - too many kicks to their full back and they were allowed to lie on way too much in the tackle, I have never seen second rows take so long to get off the grounded player.

The game was there to be won as I did not think NZ were that good (certainly nowhere need as good as previous NZ teams) but we just lacked that final composure to close the game out and made too many basic errors at key times. Play like that against Australia and they will wipe the floor with us.

Bennett needs to shake the mentality that just cos you ply your trade in the NRL, doesn’t automatically make you the best player in that position. Diabolical that the current MOS, Lance Todd and Harry Sunderland trophy winners weren’t on the pitch on Saturday.