Ultimately the best team on the day won. I think that NRL big game intensity came to the fore in the end, the fact that Whitehead amd Farnworth were possibly our best two speaks volumes. We still have ground to make up in my opinion.

You say the best team won but its not like they broke through us or created chances at will.

They won on an interception

Watching players committing to Samoa in recent months I thought they could do something special … then Newcastle made me think again… maybe the attitude is not there!?

but since then … and despite losing several key players due to injury… they have been excellent.

It’s dissapointing from an England viewpoint but sensational from the perspective of the global sport!

The NRL is already full of islanders … just watch participation explode now!!

Depends how you break it down really PT.
Certainly the interception was a gift for them but the penalty we got when Tomkins was allegedly taken late after kicking the ball was rubbish. It happens every week in SL and nothing is given.

At the risk of being pedantic, they won with a DG in golden time.
England were short of where they had been and we seemed to change tactics yesterday and moved away from the big lads driving down the middle and getting quick ptb.
Maybe, credit should go to Samoa for "forcing" the change.
We did well to take the game to golden point but, those 2 errors (dropped ball and froward pass) gifted the game to Samoa.

Samoa will have to improve massively to get anything from the final, Aussie (and NZ) look to be on a higher level altogether

They played a tactically superior game and were better in most elements of the game for 60 minutes. They showed much more composure and handled the pressure of the occasion far better than us.

Key players for us went missing tonight or had the worst games of the tournament whilst their lads all stepped up. Watkins and Welsby in particular were terrible.

It is what it is though, despite being very disappointing. My lad and I adopted Samoa as our second team so I’m still looking forward to the final. I hope the pre huge game magic sin bin sufficient call is made for Junior Paulo so he can play.

In regards England we have 3 year cycle before the next World Cup in France and we need to start preparing for it now.

Tomkins, Hall, Watkins, Whitehead, Cooper, Hill, McIllorum, need to end their international careers to be replaced with lads who we can build towards 2025 with like, Dodds, Newman, Wardle, Byrn, Harvard, Oledski, Murphy etc. and we need to provide them with an opportunity to play quality opposition annually at international level.

There are enough quality teams around now that mean we can have meaningful test matches if the Aussies don’t want to contribute. We need to make these games regular events on the rugby league calendar.

Know you are not a sore loser ,But when you think we played the 3\4 rated team made of players that mostly play in Australia shows were S L is in this country .My take on the game was England were never in it till, the last 20 mins ,and it was down to the bounce of the ball and 50\50 calls that kept us in the match .Think it we had made final it could have been embarrassing

Nothing to do with SL or NRL the coach got it wrong. Players on that pitch only there because of the coach, international selection in SL is a complete joke. Watkins has played 2nd row all season but Wane puts him in the centre. Burgess did about 15 minutes. Hooker was totally exposed Ackers should have been given the gig. Tomkins was he playing until 60 minutes. Williams one break. Yet again we have failed to develop the pathways required as we pick a biased coach.

It’s amazing how so many fans seem to be bagging selections after the event.

I personally think the selection was bang on with the exception of only taking 2 centres in the squad.

We have a pretty competitive top 18/19/20 players, sadly at the moment the quality mode dives drastically after that.

Maybe.
But they are not actually the 3/4 best players. Half of that team have dominated the NRL.
I wasn't sure before but team selection was fine for me. I'm not sure there was anyone else I'd have added that wasn't injured.
We should have won in my opinion but blew it with interception and Watkins no try.
As for the final. I hope Samoa can do it again but I fear Tonga and England have taken a lot out of them and Aussies will just glide past.

The only selections I wasn’t happy with was Mcilorum and at a push Tomkins. I genuinely think there are better players in each of their respective positions throughout SL.

Like who?

At Hooker
Leeming
Ackers

FB
Welsby (played there throughout the year to amazing effect)
Connor
Hardaker at a push, I believe he had an excellent end of year with Leeds.

For what it’s worth we were missing the likes of Lomax, Percival, Dodd, walmsley, Josh Hodgson. With Welsby at FB that’s completely changed our spine and Percival would of made a very solid contribution at centre. Wane did the best he could with the players available, but unfortunately we came up short against a team who simply have more experience within their team at this level and played the occasion better. I thought it was an absolute thrilling game and I’m gutted that we lost. On reflection only them two players really stuck out, it’s not bagging them, they clearly did their best, nobody can ever dispute the passion Mcilorum plays with, but he’s 34 playing big minutes. Tomkins was obviously there for his leadership and experience qualities, which again I understand, but as I stated I feel there are better fullbacks in SL.

I think there are better attacking fullbacks but Tomkins seems a better organiser and has an experienced head. At international level, it's all about defence.

Hindsight is wonderful thing. Watkins showed his weakness, defence, and arguably was the reason why we lost the game, as errors by him put us on the back foot and maybe increased our nervousness, and he couldn't even ground the ball when he was going over the line.

On the other hand, he's had a good tournament, the whole team has, and it seems obvious to stick to a winning formula.