: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:47 pm  

The next coach needs to be appointed on his COACHING ABILITY!



You lot keep falling into the trap of appointing coaches on their Super League records.


FFS, Ian Millward and Shaun McRae have amazing record in SL....but no one has ever accused them of being even decent coaches!

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:59 pm  

According to Ceefax Richard Lewis has given TS the dreaded vote of confidence - start on those CVs now, everyone!

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:11 pm  

YES Smith MUST go.

The players consistently looked confused when defending on their own line. Yes, there were players on the field who in better times would never get near an international cap but they should still be (and are) good enough to beat NZ.

Smith buggered up the defence and couldn't correct the mess he'd created during the tournament. For that reason alone he has no place left with the England / GB team. You cannot reward abject failure.

We should appoint a new coach who is given the job until after the next WC (by the way Tony that stands for World Cup, not sh*thouse) and then he plans his campaign from now. No point in putting a new man in a year or so beforehand. Let's take a longer term, more professional view. But, please have some pride and appoint an Englishman. By appointing an Australian who would not be appointed head coach at any NRL club you are sending a message to the players that we are vastly inferior to the team we have to beat to win something.

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:13 pm  

Worst series of performances from the national side since the early 80s.

SMITH OUT!!!

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:13 pm  

The Chronicler of Chiswic wrote:

According to Ceefax Richard Lewis has given TS the dreaded vote of confidence - start on those CVs now, everyone!

To be fair, though, Richard Lewis wouldn't be Richard Lewis if he had done any differently, would he? He's the consumate professional administrator is Dickie L. However, give it time over here once they're all back and things may change - though not to be debated publically, of course. That would not be cricket (or tennis, in Dickie L's case).

Smith has to go though. He had all that time to get to know players, get to pick them, to bond them, to do everything he fecking wanted with them, but they looked like a pack of blokes he'd picked off the street they were so not a team.

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:17 pm  

Beechwood Bull wrote:

Worst series of performances from the national side since the early 80s.

SMITH OUT!!!

There was an excuse then. The Australians had reinvented the game and we hadn't realised it (although it was there for all to see in 3rd Test at Headingley in 1978). We were part time, they much more professional.

This time, there's no such excuse. We've remodelled the game, gone professional but are even further behind.

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:20 pm  

Dally wrote:

This time, there's no such excuse. We've remodelled the game, gone professional but are even further behind.

Is it that we are further behind or that the two games have evolved differently?

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:23 pm  

Smith will resign

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:24 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Is it that we are further behind or that the two games have evolved differently?

It's irrelevant. We are looking less and less likely to beat Australia as time goes by.

: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:43 pm  

Dally wrote:

It's irrelevant. We are looking less and less likely to beat Australia as time goes by.

On the last Ashes Tour over here, we lost two games narrowly. Frustrating, but you felt that we were close, and a psychological difference was probaly what split the sides more than huge amounts of talent. Since then, we've gone backwards fast in relation to the Aussies. Every single man on that Aussie team was beter than his opposite number. 5 years ago, a sensible pundit could suggest half a dozen Brits who would get into the Aussie side. This year, maybe Peacock as a second-row grunt. Maybe.

The situation in our backline from 1-7 is atrocious. I hate how old this makes me sound, but I've been watching rugby for 25 years now, and I have never seen a set of backs so utterly devoid of world class talent. Compared to Newlove, Davies, Offiah, Gibbs, Connolly, Radlinski in his pomp, Edwards, Goulding etc this lot are woeful. Everyone over 30 will recognise how dire it is that I can say this confidently, but if Alan Hunte was playing now, he'd be the best winger in this country by such a distance that Stevo would be tossing off over him. Sculthorpe and Farrell had their detractors (usually wearing either Wigan or Saints shirts), but they were beter backs than any of our lads on this tour, and they were actually both forwards.