Thoughts on England/exiles game.

[jools]

Not sure why we had Roby and burrow on together, brough was wasted out wide the ball needed to go through his hands more it limited his kicking game too. Briscoes defence was shocking for much of the game, ratchford stepped up well. Wilkin a waste of space and not captain material. Forwards did ok, the offloads pushed too much.

[Cheese]

according to jon wilkin, the england team lacks experience but they are building to the world cup in 2013. how many international games do england have before that world cup??

[CherryPie]

The England team that played lacks experience but not the one that McNamara is likely to pick. I didn't think any of the newer players really let themselves down. Ratchford didn't get much to do in attack but he defended well and returned the ball with interest, Charnley did alright and took his try well, Matty Smith was clearly the better of the two halves and his kicking game was good, Mossop was good again, Scott Taylor did quite well apart from an error and Liam Farrell looked better than the three other back row forwards.

Briscoe, Wilkin, Atkins and Brough looked pretty weak at times.

[LeedsBarmyArmy]

I only watched the first 30 mins and the last 20, and it seemed a pretty poor game!

[Dinosaur Rah!!!!]

I couldn't cope after 60 minutes, it was awful. Decided I'd watch the sky plused Origin game I didn't know the score of ................ I made the right choice!

[westy_warrior]

wilkin to the NRL?

[MossdaleRhino]

It was an experimental side last night and it showed....I guess Steve Mac will say he had to use a chance to look at the fringe players in the squad, and in that it was a useful excercise, but to be frank, when at full strength, and also when the Aussie based players are available to the squad, half of that team that played last night won't make the team for the RLWC. I wouldnt be too worried about last night, a full strength England would probably have beaten that Exiles side. At least we now know which players are probably not quite up to the job when it comes to more serious battles to come.

[T-Bone]

I thought Burrow added some flair into our game when he came on but i was confused with what him and Roby were supposed to be doing at the same time??!!
Farrell made some good drives and looks to be the one to take over from JJB or Wilkin when they both retire.
Ratchford looked good in defence and when under kicking pressure but lacked in attack, I dont think Tomkins needs to worry about losing his place anytime soon.
I was disappointed with Brough thought maybe the pressure got to him, Ablett looked average at second row but came to life when moved into the centres.
I dont think our big props dominated at all!!
Anyway to sum it up Poor intensity match, poor team selection (looked more like the Knights then firsts) and not much actually learnt!

[Rhino1984]

England were very poor.
Both halves were poor especially in defence.
Tom briscoes is like a dog in headlights at this level. He can still run the ball good and made some good cover tackles but positionally very poor. He have his opposite winger so much room.
Cudjoe didn't do anything terrible but not good at this level.
I think they should have played someone other than Jamie Jones. Not that he played bad but he's coming to the back end of his career and has always been a fringe player at international level. He won't make the team ahead of hock, Ellis, Westwood etc so if treated like a friendly I'd have gone with someone else.
Carvell ran hard but his offloads often found the floor and not a player.
I thought ratchford played well.
Atkins put a good effort in but again some poor defensive reads, although it was difficult to see who was to blame for the gaps in defence on first look.
Burrow looked lively but was often looking for a runner that wasn't there or England failed to set any good play off the back of one of his runs.
I know he's going on your with the under 18's but I'd have liked to see Bateman play.
What about westerman? Is he injured, not heard his name mentioned for a while and he excellent back end of last year fire hull.
It's also a shame Watkins has spent most of the year on the sidelines has he's been excellent for Leeds when he's played.

We'll that's it for internationals until the end of the year now and even then it's going to be a poor standard.
I think in these games at the end of the year McNamara needs to pick the players he knows he wants for the world cup that will be show in starts and then test a few of the fringe players.
I expect reed to be in one centre position but there will be competition for the other centre which he needs to find in the next 12 months.
He also needs to find his best props.
After watching that I fully expect the halves to go back to sinfield and chase, although it's a shame Lomax was injured for the game last might.
Anyway onwards and upwards.
Even though the game wasn't a great spectacle it will have done McNamara and the players the world of good.
I still don't think McNamara is the right man for the job but that isn't going to change so for now has my full backing.


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[drsrhino]

I watched soo 3 first and watching this game compared to that was embarrassing.