Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 8:47 am  

PopTart wrote:

You say the best team won but its not like they broke through us or created chances at will.

They won on an interception

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.

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:19 am  

PopTart wrote:

You say the best team won but its not like they broke through us or created chances at will.

They won on an interception

Know you are not a sore loser ,But when you think we played the 3\4 rated team made of players that mostly play in Australia shows were S L is in this country .My take on the game was England were never in it till, the last 20 mins ,and it was down to the bounce of the ball and 50\50 calls that kept us in the match .Think it we had made final it could have been embarrassing

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:37 am  

Nothing to do with SL or NRL the coach got it wrong. Players on that pitch only there because of the coach, international selection in SL is a complete joke. Watkins has played 2nd row all season but Wane puts him in the centre. Burgess did about 15 minutes. Hooker was totally exposed Ackers should have been given the gig. Tomkins was he playing until 60 minutes. Williams one break. Yet again we have failed to develop the pathways required as we pick a biased coach.

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:55 am  

REDWHITEANDBLUE wrote:

Nothing to do with SL or NRL the coach got it wrong. Players on that pitch only there because of the coach, international selection in SL is a complete joke. Watkins has played 2nd row all season but Wane puts him in the centre. Burgess did about 15 minutes. Hooker was totally exposed Ackers should have been given the gig. Tomkins was he playing until 60 minutes. Williams one break. Yet again we have failed to develop the pathways required as we pick a biased coach.

It’s amazing how so many fans seem to be bagging selections after the event.

I personally think the selection was bang on with the exception of only taking 2 centres in the squad.

We have a pretty competitive top 18/19/20 players, sadly at the moment the quality mode dives drastically after that.

[PopTart]

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:41 am  

alegend wrote:

Know you are not a sore loser ,But when you think we played the 3\4 rated team made of players that mostly play in Australia shows were S L is in this country .My take on the game was England were never in it till, the last 20 mins ,and it was down to the bounce of the ball and 50\50 calls that kept us in the match .Think it we had made final it could have been embarrassing

Maybe.
But they are not actually the 3/4 best players. Half of that team have dominated the NRL.
I wasn't sure before but team selection was fine for me. I'm not sure there was anyone else I'd have added that wasn't injured.
We should have won in my opinion but blew it with interception and Watkins no try.
As for the final. I hope Samoa can do it again but I fear Tonga and England have taken a lot out of them and Aussies will just glide past.

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:42 am  

jonh wrote:

It’s amazing how so many fans seem to be bagging selections after the event.

I personally think the selection was bang on with the exception of only taking 2 centres in the squad.

We have a pretty competitive top 18/19/20 players, sadly at the moment the quality mode dives drastically after that.

The only selections I wasn’t happy with was Mcilorum and at a push Tomkins. I genuinely think there are better players in each of their respective positions throughout SL.

[PopTart]

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:42 am  

Pat Bateman wrote:

The only selections I wasn’t happy with was Mcilorum and at a push Tomkins. I genuinely think there are better players in each of their respective positions throughout SL.

Like who?

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:50 am  

PopTart wrote:

Like who?

At Hooker
Leeming
Ackers

FB
Welsby (played there throughout the year to amazing effect)
Connor
Hardaker at a push, I believe he had an excellent end of year with Leeds.

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:04 am  

For what it’s worth we were missing the likes of Lomax, Percival, Dodd, walmsley, Josh Hodgson. With Welsby at FB that’s completely changed our spine and Percival would of made a very solid contribution at centre. Wane did the best he could with the players available, but unfortunately we came up short against a team who simply have more experience within their team at this level and played the occasion better. I thought it was an absolute thrilling game and I’m gutted that we lost. On reflection only them two players really stuck out, it’s not bagging them, they clearly did their best, nobody can ever dispute the passion Mcilorum plays with, but he’s 34 playing big minutes. Tomkins was obviously there for his leadership and experience qualities, which again I understand, but as I stated I feel there are better fullbacks in SL.

Re: Come on England. : Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:33 pm  

I think there are better attacking fullbacks but Tomkins seems a better organiser and has an experienced head. At international level, it's all about defence.

Hindsight is wonderful thing. Watkins showed his weakness, defence, and arguably was the reason why we lost the game, as errors by him put us on the back foot and maybe increased our nervousness, and he couldn't even ground the ball when he was going over the line.

On the other hand, he's had a good tournament, the whole team has, and it seems obvious to stick to a winning formula.