Entry 2: 2nd November
The Rugby League papers on Monday were predictably questioning Steve McNamara's team selection for last Sunday's game with Australia in Melbourne and for good reason too.
After playing mostof the season at hooker, Luke Robinson found himself starting at scrum-half while one time clubmate at Wigan Sean O'Loughlin was moved from loose forward to stand-off. Neither move truly worked. O'Loughlin defending on an edge got caught out a couple of times and Luke Lewis gave him a torrid time while Robinson only looked truly at ease when operating from hooker.
Despite some excellent work from the likes of Graham, Roby, Burgess and Ellis and a promising start that saw the English take an 8-6 lead after 15 minutes, they then went through the horrors over the next twenty minutes as Australia ran in the points, all of which came off the back of mistakes.
When also factoring into the mix the performance of the referee, it meant that Australia eventually coasted to a convincing 34-14 win. This led to McNamaras team selection rightly coming under fire, although I think we have more problems.
Once again overall we were too meek and mild and after Burgess cut through for the first England try, in truth they rarely threatened, with a limp kicking game and a defensive system that cracked under a bit of pressure.
I have been critical amongst peers about the England backline and my opinion has not changed. Out of all the backs currently out there for England, there is only possibly Sam Tomkins and at a pinch Ryan Hall, who could play in the NRL.
Darrell Goulding is still a work in progress. Tom Briscoe was quiet, Leroy Cudjoe was left badly exposed and that was perhaps not all his fault - he's only played in the centres a handful of times.
The big disappointment for me was Ryan Atkins. Here is a player that has looked good in a backline with the likes of Matt King and Chris Riley at Warrington but here he looked sluggish, lethargic and in truth awful.
It is creatively where England struggle most though and until the Super League competition can create more halfbacks, and I'm not talking 31 year old Aussies here or 22 year old foreign "Jonny Come Lately's", I'm talking about British kids. Allow the likes of Myler, Eastmond etc to develop. A halfback only learns by experience. I also agree with a couple of other people's views on the game. Mentally we look soft and can't reach a level of intensity needed to test the Australians for half an hour, let alone eighty minutes.
The Aussies kept things simple without ever seeming to truly excel. Still on this form it is NZ who will reign supreme. The fact of the matter is that despite 15 years of being told otherwise, Super League isn't increasing the talent pools and I think a talent identification system should be brought in, in addition to trusting some of these youngsters in games instead of ditching them for an established player.
I feel another rant coming on at some point later tomorrow evening!
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