Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:06 pm  

Agreed Andy, whilst the English forwards were average in some aspects like ball retention, they did consistently get us up the park. If I had to find fault it would be that the back row carried very little threat with ball to in hand.

Oh and that was the worst Australian performance in living memory, if they play anything like that against England we will have the best chance of beating them for years...

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:27 pm  

Not with Tomkins at fullback. All they need to do is put up an average high kick and chase it. Likelihood is he will drop it. Gives a chance to even the averagest of sides.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:52 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

Not with Tomkins at fullback. All they need to do is put up an average high kick and chase it. Likelihood is he will drop it. Gives a chance to even the averagest of sides.

Much like Australia's full-backs today then.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:55 pm  

I was only commenting on the forwards. Sam Tompkins couldn't catch a dose in a brothel...

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 7:14 pm  

Since Sean Long is helping out Samoa, can we add 'treachery' to his long list of crimes?

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:12 pm  

To be fair to Sean Long, that's the most influence he's had on an international game at any time in his career.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:17 am  

I didn't think the Burgess brothers had anywhere near the impact on the go forward they do in the NRL. We never really used them close to the line in the way South Sydney do. Watkins worries me in defence he seems to come out of the line too often leaving huge gaps. I wouldn't be playing Tomkins at FB a kicker as good as Cronk will surely expose him even more than the Somoans did today. We need to improve our ball retention we will not be able give that much ball away against either the Kiwis or the Aussies

All on for next week beat the Aussies - they didn't look brilliant today - and they are out.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sun Oct 26, 2014 8:26 am  

Hardacker for me is THE best defensive in the world for me, he reads the game exceptionally well and he should be at 1, especially against Australia.
Tomkins can easily slot in at 6, he played the majority of his career at 6 and will take on the line and let Widdop do the organising.

Against Australia

1. Hardacker
2. Charnley
3. Shenton
4. Watkins
5. Hall
6. Tomkins
7. Widdop
8. Hill
9. Clark
10. Graham
11. Whitehead
12. Farrell
13. O'Loughlin

14. Hodgson
15. T.Burgess
16. G.Burgess
17. Ratchford.

Clark, Hill, Graham, Whitehead, Farrell are all very fit guys who are more than capable of doing big stints.
Ratchford brings options as the only position he didn't play for Warrington last year was prop.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:06 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

To be fair to Sean Long, that's the most influence he's had on an international game at any time in his career.

He had a decent game in the win in Sydney in 2006!

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:07 pm  

Wire Yed wrote:

Hardacker for me is THE best defensive in the world for me, he reads the game exceptionally well and he should be at 1, especially against Australia.
Tomkins can easily slot in at 6, he played the majority of his career at 6 and will take on the line and let Widdop do the organising.

Against Australia

1. Hardacker
2. Charnley
3. Shenton
4. Watkins
5. Hall
6. Tomkins
7. Widdop
8. Hill
9. Clark
10. Graham
11. Whitehead
12. Farrell
13. O'Loughlin

14. Hodgson
15. T.Burgess
16. G.Burgess
17. Ratchford.

Clark, Hill, Graham, Whitehead, Farrell are all very fit guys who are more than capable of doing big stints.
Ratchford brings options as the only position he didn't play for Warrington last year was prop.

I'd go with this.