2013 - lost to Italy, had a poor WC, had a PR nightmare and only a gallant loss to the Kiwis papered over the cracks 2014 - poor against Samoa, bottled it against a weak Australia and beaten by the Kiwis 2015 - squeezed past the Kiwis reserves in the most dour set of Tests I've ever seen
Lots of candidates out there for mine: McDermott, Wane, Powell
My dream choice would be McNamara's superior...Trent Robinson. Won't happen though.
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He's done ok, but if you do what you always do you will get what you always got. My worry is the RFL will think an occasional series victory against a weakened NZ is success.
2013 - lost to Italy, had a poor WC, had a PR nightmare and only a gallant loss to the Kiwis papered over the cracks 2014 - poor against Samoa, bottled it against a weak Australia and beaten by the Kiwis 2015 - squeezed past the Kiwis reserves in the most dour set of Tests I've ever seen
Lots of candidates out there for mine: McDermott, Wane, Powell
Results against the "Big Two" have been on a steady upward curve over the last couple of years. Harsh to swing the axe under those circumstances
In 12 games against NZ & Australia, England have won 3 under Steve McNamara - a win ratio of 25% against the top international teams.
2 of those victories came this year against an NZ team missing their first choice half backs (Johnson & Foran), captain (Mannering), main attacking threat (Vatuvei) & their biggest go forward (Warea-Hargeaves). Would NZ have won this test series if all those had played...we will never know but an educated guess is that they probably would have done
It seems to me as though a 2-1 series win against an under-strength Kiwi team has "papered over the cracks" for a lot of people in terms of McNamara's coaching abilities when the reality is once again in the World Cup 2 years away we will be no nearer beating Australia or NZ with him as coach when it matters.
The main issue is who to replace him with, as unfortunately I dont think anybody is available currently who would realistically be interested in the job who is any better than McNamara (assuming Powell, McDermott, wane etc are unable to do it alongside their club head coach role)
I'm amazed how often Wane's name comes up on here as a suggestion for England coach. He's got the 2nd easiest head coach job in SL and hasn't been particularly successful. Is he tactically astute? He seems very passionate and hard-working but I wouldn't say he was an improvement on Steve Mc. Powell or McDermott or no change for me.
Of course, in the interests of a balanced assessment, you have to look at both sides and provide relative comparisons.
wakey_saint wrote:
In 12 games against NZ & Australia, England have won 3 under Steve McNamara - a win ratio of 25% against the top international teams.
What was England's win ratio for the years prior to Steve McNamara?
Have the margins of defeat got smaller or larger?
2 of those victories came this year against an NZ team missing their first choice half backs (Johnson & Foran), captain (Mannering), main attacking threat (Vatuvei) & their biggest go forward (Warea-Hargeaves). Would NZ have won this test series if all those had played...we will never know but an educated guess is that they probably would have done
England didn't have any injuries then?
It seems to me as though a 2-1 series win against an under-strength Kiwi team has "papered over the cracks" for a lot of people in terms of McNamara's coaching abilities when the reality is once again in the World Cup 2 years away we will be no nearer beating Australia or NZ with him as coach when it matters.
Except it mattered last Saturday, and we won.
The main issue is who to replace him with, as unfortunately I dont think anybody is available currently who would realistically be interested in the job who is any better than McNamara (assuming Powell, McDermott, wane etc are unable to do it alongside their club head coach role)
Been England coach is the easiest job in the world there's only 2 teams that can beat and as long as you trade wins with one of them and beat the other one the odd time your laughing