Yes his old Wigan pals were found out today big style. Tomkins dosnt look the same player when he cant con our poor UK refs and milk penalties to get the upper hand.
However I thought Farnsworth and Whitehead had excellent games.

As expected England caught Samoa cold and haven’t had a truly competitive game after a woefully east run to the semi final. Fell at the first hurdle and sign of pressure. Real tin pot stuff.

Mccollurum, Tomkins, Cooper, Hill should have been nowhere near that team.

Players like Young/Radley looking great smashing second tier nations but ultimately found out.

Poor tournament from England essentially limping out after some major bluster.

We were always up against it with Tomkins and Mcilorum making up 50% of our spine, they just aren’t good enough anymore unfortunately and the Samoa side just targeted Mcilorum all game. Welsby still has a lot of maturing and developing to do before he can be deemed a quality half, but you need games like these to achieve that. I thought Whitehead was the best forward on the field, he was outstanding.

Am I right in thinking Ackers was injured earlier in the tournement?

I remember hearing someone say in the second half when Mcilorum came back on that he'd now see out the remainder of the game and would be a big part of the comeback if there was to be one but for me he looked terrible, I don't think he'll ever lose that aggression but going forward he's not the answer for me.

Too right I totally agree. Although he didnt play, dont forget Wane also selected Ryan Hall as part of the squad, which I find astonishing

I don’t think Ackers was injured, think they went with Mcilorum, with Radley stepping into dummy half while Knowles went to 13. There’s been some really bright sparks for me, Young, Farnworth and even Williams. Unfortunately we found our level as we are still allowing players like Mcilorum, Tomkins to play in pivotal positions when they don’t stand out in SL never mind against some of the best players in the world. I really enjoyed the game, it was absolutely thrilling to watch, and I’m kind of glad as it saves us from getting an absolute mauling next week.

To the Credit of Hill I genuinely thought he stood his ground and played well. He’s a player who can walk away from this tournament with his head held high in my opinion.

England didn't get fired up till the middle of the second half and even then we could have nicked it.But got to say that Samoa fully deserved their win.It didn't do us any favours having easy games up to the semis, whilst Samoa were battle hardened.Players such as Hall,Watkins,Mcllorum and Tompkins still getting in squad makes me wonder how far our game has gone downhill!

Nothing wrong with Samoa's line speed today. They had the measure of England.
Watkins not grounding properly was a turning point for me and unfortunately the same player misses a crucial tackle for one Samoan try. He wasn't solely to blame and I just think they wanted the game more than us.
I'll be cheering them on against Australia and to be honest they have a better chance of beating the Aussies than we would have had - most of them are almost Aussies anyway!

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.