The Eclipse wrote:
Hey Rogues, just a couple of things the commentators said Nick Gregson went off injured, did Oli Davies go off injured as well ?
Also, one commentator who i believe was Mark Hobson an ex Bradford player said that England were a bigger team, is that the case ?
Would you make any changes ?
Gregson went off with what looked like a bad knee injury. I hope it's not a reoccurrence of the one he had back in 2013. Davies also went off in the 2nd half but I believe it's only a "dead leg"
No way were England the bigger side.
Lamb and Mitchell(what a player he is) were standouts for the Aussies and the pack were relentless in driving the ball forward and just as importantly in the tackle, often driving the English players backwards.
However England did have their chances, Gildart should have put Lancaster in early on but his pass was poor. Keyes twice opened up the defence only for Turgut to put the ball down (one which Mitchell picked up and went 80 metres) Then early in the 2nd half Golding made a good break down the middle only to throw his pass into Aussi hands.
Englands attack improved with the introduction of Waterworth, his passing from dummy half was excellent, but that's not to say Robbie Ward was poor, he produced the tackle of the match to chase across and prevent the Aussies scoring. Jordan Abdul had a good game for England as did Oliver Davies, but our front row didn't deliver.
I was very disappointed in Turgut and Lancaster, two players I have praised previously and expected better of. As Turgut is captain I can't see him being dropped, I just hope it was a one off poor game. From somewhere we need to find who can hold their own with the Aussie pack which would give us some hope.
Toby King was very good for England and both he and Gildart caused problems from the centre positions but Gildart did make a couple of poor decisions with the ball, a bi=t like last week when Wigan were chasing the game.
We need someone to give Mitchell "a dodgy curry" on Thursday.
Sadly I can't go on Friday as I'm in Manchester with my ex work colleagues for what is usually a "messy" Christmas meet up.