Completely agree. He is a very good 13 but a makeshift 6 who should only play there (as he does for us) when all other options have been exhausted.

Dave

How is it a step back to pick a side to win the game? This is not about player development. International RL never has been. The development goes on at club level and the International coach should be assembling the squad from the best players that season and if one of them is Gleeson then he should have been in the side.

Even if he is past his best Gleeson has been the form English centre in SL and that should have got him on the plane regardless of him being better earlier in his career or being toward the end of his career.

The point made about partnering Goulding is a good one as well. A canny coach might have taken that into account but just like in soccer we seem to try and pick what the coach thinks is the best set of players rather than the best team.

Dave

Has that time not come though? In my opinion it has. Brown has been awful in the last 2 games and Widdop has been very average which means Tomkins has to play at full back to give us more of a threat. I am no fan of playing players out of position but O'Loughlin at 6 gives us the best chance of winning out of the options available and results in a much stronger team than has been seen in the last 2 games.

www.slstats.org/2004/8/6/Wigan+W ... ll+FC.html

www.slstats.org/2004/8/6/Wigan+W ... ll+FC.html

But if he plays 6 he is also not playing 13. Can't see how that improves our chances. Tomkins is a 6, Lockers a 13 are IMO the best English players in those positions in SL. If we have a problem at FB, find another FB not do the musical chairs thing.

Dave

Still it will be second rate coach McNamara who gets the grief for all this swapping and changing and the expected hammering. I would have had Noble as England coach rather than McNamara.

great shot after the try of the big Wigan lad going bonkers in the England shirt.

Wow 'how if there benefit of the doubt' surely that is when the video ref cant see what is going on, it was eith try or no try

Pathetic all around...


Poor ref and the backs are just sh*te The forwards look top though, putting big hits in and making ground. Defense looks awful though.

The forwards smashed the Aussies up early doors but the backs are pathetic. They can't even a lay a basic platform to get Sam Tomkins some ball in an attacking position.

If Eastmond had been fit aswell as Pryce(and he'd picked him) and Gleeson got the call his form(and class overall) deserved then we could at least throw a backline out there that might look something above championship class.

I've said previosuly when discussing how good Pat Richards is that he's not a genius or a freak but that he just does the basics right. He has god given attributes like his size but how we as a country can't produce backs of that quality is beyond me! We get all these fiddly little wingers who'll have a crack but ultimatly don't have the size or skills to make a mark at this level.

As for our centres......................

Pat Richards is a freak though. He's a monster of a man.

Today proved locky is not a 6 he's a loose or second row

We already knew that: problem is we don't have any international class half-backs, apart from Sam.

Big Ben.

Was on at the end too