England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:23 am  

Went along to the WC warm up match and definitely not the result I was expecting with close to a first choice squad on the pitch.

Mc Namara was talking about keeping the England role after the cup had ended, a performance like that in the competition proper and he should be worrying about keeping his role during the competition!

Given the emphasis being put on how important a successful WC is to bringing support and coverage for our game, even encouraging more fans to come to WC games, the lack of interest from the players last night was disturbing. Hopefully a kick up the pants will focus their minds for the rather more serious opposition coming up next.

[Bulliac]

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:55 am  

Not the expected - or wanted, warm up result, was it. I'd say the England team and squad is stronger than it has been for decades to be fair, especially in the forwards, so I'm going for an aberration with that result and for them to show their true colours next weekend!

I hope..

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:35 am  

Bulliac wrote:

Not the expected - or wanted, warm up result, was it. I'd say the England team and squad is stronger than it has been for decades to be fair, especially in the forwards, so I'm going for an aberration with that result and for them to show their true colours next weekend!

I hope..

Agreed,they have the players so no excuses.I am presuming they just thought they had to turn up to beat Italy.Let's hope that brings them back down to earth with the Aussies coming up at the weekend.

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:32 am  

It's a bad result for England but is it a bad result for the tournament? I suppose it points towards a more competitive tournament

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:13 pm  

I see that McBanana is still coming out with the same rubbis he did when in charge of Bradford and we lost a game we should have easily won

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:14 pm  

England lose to Italy it's the SM effect as we well know!

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:16 pm  

roofaldo2 wrote:

I see that McBanana is still coming out with the same rubbis he did when in charge of Bradford and we lost a game we should have easily won

We know where we went wrong, we can work on that, we'll have it righted by next week, blah blah blah

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:49 pm  

Sacknamara.

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:11 pm  

Have Italy ever beaten a NZ, Aus or Eng side before Saturday?

[Bullseye]

Re: England v Italy : Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:15 pm  

No Mick they haven’t. But I can’t see McBanana putting it on his CV though can you?

On the plus side the loss should jog the England players out of their complacency, not that they should have been complacent in the first place.

McBanana was a master at putting sides out that under-performed. You’d think he’d be able to spot the warning signs by now, especially after the super duper preparation in South Africa.