A years a long time and both teams have made alot of changes, Imo we lost it when Smith made about 5-6 changes when Wellens got injured.

I agree with Higham .He played well and gave the Kiwi forwards a hell of a time in the middle of the park.

In International rugby ,No team should get beat by the scoreline we did after been in control for most of the first half.

i would,nt let sinfield near an england shirt again,daft penalty,s and stupid options cost us dearly.

Would agree with that. It is also no coincidence that the Kiwis played their better rugby when Lulu went off.

Come on PNG!

I can't believe how arrogant Sky and Tony Smith are being. The game next week has already been advertised as NZ v England. Even the BBC are saying we "meet again next week". OK it will probably happen but they're discussing it as if it is already agreed and set up. Tony Smith says he'll look at the tape of the match tomorrow, but he might be packing his bags for the journey home and watching the semi final from England next Saturday. Monday morning's video might be the inflight movie.

We were shockingly poor in the second half (although the Warrington players did OK eh, Mr Cullen?). I can't honestly see any of the missing players (if we go through) improving us. Sliding defence was awful and contributed to the massive overlap for Vatuvei. My mum might have scored those tries. And moving Burrow etc round was tactically stupid. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Despite the appauling showing so far if we win next week then we are in the final.

I would not put it past us to beat them next week.

Gleeson at 6 was an awful decision.

My team:-

Wellens
Calderwood
Senior
Gleeson
Smith
Pryce
Burrow
Graham
Roby
Morley
Peacock
JJB
Ellis

Higham
Hock
Purdham
Sinfield

yet more of our so called super league superstars being found out again today

give burrow the captains armband for the last match next week, at least hes got guts and the kid can talk, hes the only voice i heard out there today.

Yet we still led 24 - 8! Who would you take then? The team from yesteryear that was arguably no better? Smith took a gamble by not taking players based on their reputation, but took players who had never played for England before. If it had payed off, everyone would have been singing his praises. It hasn't so far, so people start shooting down the Coach. We in England are so far behind in development standards compared to the NRL, but slowly, we are starting to see a difference. The new rules introduced by the RFL re: the number of 'homegrown' players that have to be in the 20/18/17 each game will also make a difference to the future of International standards within England, and other countries as well.

I know it sounds unpatriotic but i find myself saying the thing.

But at lease we'll have a greater pool of mediocrity to chose from

How?

Surely, if the rules were kept the same, we would have a worse situation than we have now as all the 'heros' and 'senior/must have' players within Super League would have retired. The RFL are trying to help the International team by having a higher concentration of homegrown players training full time within their clubs, rather than crocked Aussies and older British players looking to increase their earnings before they retire.

All what will happen is that players who normally would have been released due to them not been able to make the step up to SL will be getting retained due to their passport. Which will make the league and standard of play alot weaker.

The whole blame the imports idea is an easy excuse for our failings at International level. In 5 years time when we are further behind Australia i wonder what the excuse will be.

PATHETIC!!!! Utter crap if we some how FLUKE our way into the final then i fear the ozzys will run in 100 in the final past them clowns!!! To think i actually had some of my hard earned on them,should of known better!!! [sizePATHETIC[/size