The Fantastic Mr Fox.

Quote: General Zod. "Most sensible FC & KR fans want to see England do well for the good of our game as a whole but the threads and posts ever since Tom Briscoe & Fox were competing for the same wing spot were initially started as an opportunity to have a go back for us Rovers fans having the bragging rights for a long time demonstrated at Chris1953's thread having a go at Fox for not getting the spot ahead of Briscoe for the Aus game.

After the Aus game I made several posts about why (in my opinion) Tom Briscoe can not cut it as an international winger and gave detailed analysis of why I came to my opinion only for bitter FC fans to gob off without providing any counter opinion other than "he did nothing wrong..."

The England coaching team analysed the Aus game and obviously saw similar things to me and chose to play Fox in the Kiwi game and their decision was vindicated by the result and performance in which Fox played his part. People (in particular FC fans) will point to the fact he shot out of the line when the Kiwis scored yet his centre was nowhere to be seen. Even so, poor decision making can be rectified with good coaching/video analysis which is a small achievable task - selecting players at international level is just because they don't knock-on a lot is a flawed and ridiculous idea.

Fox showed his natural winger instincts by showing good judgment in the bounce of the ball for his first try and showed some quick footwork for his second try. He's a round peg in a round hole and is someone who will make the opposition pay if he gets a chance.

His main attribute he brings to the team is his dummy-half runs. The game plan of utilising Fox and Hall for the first two dummy-half scoots generated momentum for the forwards to flood up the middle channel as the Kiwis were constantly on the back foot - this is the key thing I previously pointed out (and was proved right) why Fox should be playing in the team because Tom Briscoe just doesn't have the speed of Fox - especially scooting from the play-the-ball which is far more important than FC fans would digest.

So Fox plays well, Mrs Barista is left frothing at the mouth because her childish database of quotes were redundant, and numerous FC fans backtrack on their slating of Fox and my totally vindicated pre-match prediction because they've been proved wrong. I went a little OTT with the "close the door on your way out Tom" post but I was simply hammering home that should any FC fan come on this board and slate one of our players then they must expect the same in return and not spit their dummies out when it happens.

Don't get me wrong I have absolutely nothing against Tom Briscoe and I hope goes on to be a great player but I think automatically expecting him to be the next England centre for the next 10 years is a little premature - why? people have stated he's "inexperienced" but so are Tomkins (12 SL games) and Eastmond yet they are in the team on merit. Two things going against the kid are; 1) Being developed under a very poor coach in Agar & 2) Being made out to be something he's not by FC fans - much in the same way that Tommy Lee, Graham Horne were because it didn't do them in the long term.

Anyway, let's hope Briscoe goes on to be a great player and England win on Saturday regardless of who's playing for them...'"