I was expecting Reece and Tom to be wing/ partners.
I was disappointed to see Tom outside Percival, but I thought...give Percy a chance.
But as expected, as good as he is he's still gonna back himself in positions where he really should be putting his winger in, it works ok at Saints but its not gonna fly for Tom.
I don't care who scores, but running it yourself and drawing a blank more often than not, isn't the best route forward.
Tom didn't get a thing off Percival yet still scored 3 from nothing, I hope that isn't the shape we're gonna build.
Connor would have been a better for Tom than Percival, even if he keeps chucking the odd brainfart in.

Wayne Bennet is an utter cod piece. How can you drop Johnstone for Makinson.

I don't understand why people think Johnstone and Lyne should have been together. They never play together for Wakefield.
Tom is left wing Reece is right centre.
They would be daft to change that for England.
Especially when Percival plays on Tom's side.

Its because Percival is a lone ranger, he's not a feeding .
Ok, if you're gonna have him in the team for that, he'd better make it count otherwise any decent would be a more fruitful option.

Congrats to tom on his England debut first half hat trick

Can't recall any where player previously doing that

Great debut from reece also

I just assumed that on seeing the tea sheet.

that's how I saw it, in fact I thought Tom had a mediocre game for him to earn the the MOM and Connor would make a good team up if he's ok on the left as he normally on the other side, Burgess bros made a hell of a difference in the first half what a pair their make

If Makinson comes straight back in he's a lot too live up to now well done Tom

Where can you watch the highlights online....anywhere??

it was on live on the RFL website so it might have highlights on there

Found em www.rugby-league.com/england/art ... d-v-france

Found em www.rugby-league.com/england/art ... d-v-france

It's a little disappointing that Bennett appears to already have his team picked for the first game.

Regardless of how well some of the lads played they couldn't have played their way into the team. That must have been frustrating for them.

I thought Johnstone did enough to warrant a place on merit, as did Oggy Holmes in my opinion. I thought the left edge of Connor, Holmes, Percival and Johnstone was outstanding - and it came as no shock to me that the points dried up when that was split up 15 minutes into the second half.

Having watched Australia v NZ last week, the centre battle between manu and Mitchell was absolutely ridiculous. They are just phenomenal.

It does highlight a massive weakness in England - we don't have a centre even close to those two.

That said, Lyne can only be better than whatever else is out there, and I think last night he did pretty much all he could. He ran well and made no mistakes.

Its just a position where Australia and NZ have a huge advantage on us.

Lyne went really well last night, put a shift in and went looking for the work right up to the end. Not sure that’s enough to get himself in the frame for NZ.

TJ finished his chances off but didn’t think he really saw a lot of the ball in the wide areas. Some strong carries out from the back which we’ll need against NZ. He’d be unlucky to miss out now.

Holmes had a good game but unlikely to displace the main 2nd row options and he’s due on a plane to PNG with the Knights.

I thought Lyne had a decent game but I wished he'd given the ball to MacGillivray after that break down the right wing.

I'd have to watch it back to be sure but at the time he seemed to get closed down fairly quickly by the French and was maybe better hanging onto it than throwing out a low percentage pass in traffic that ended up going nowhere - that quite a few players did last night.

They never showed a replay but MacG was on his inside. May or may not have got tackled but RL should have passed.
Good performance by Tom Johnstone. Great to score hat trick especially since the only other times he touched the ball were from acting half back.