***Rugby League in 2022***

Went to the England v France game yesterday. Good day out and a solid performance

Thought England were good for about 25 minutes in each half. Unfortunately, if we are good for 25 minutes in each half v Australia we will lose by 20 points. They never switch off and if you do, you'll be stood alongside your posts whilst they take a conversion. If anybody is going to keep them focused, it will be Shaun Wane. Not a bloke to get on the wrong side of.

I was thinking about Dom Young and Herbie Farnworth. If they had stayed over here, would they have been as good? It must be the coaching and the week in week out intensity of all the grades leading up to NRL that develops them to where they are at. It's scary to think how good Welsby could get if (and (sadly) probably when) he goes over there.

PS Just got invites to the WC Final. Just hope England get there!
 
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Junior Paulo getting a one game ban isn't the worst news I've heard this week :)

NZ v Fiji and Tonga v Samoa were two good games. I thought the latter was all a bit 'one-out', but tense until the end. England played the perfect first 30 minutes on Saturday and got their rewards.

I hadn't seen wheelchair rugby league until last week. Raises the meaning of the word brutal to a whole new level :eek:
 
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Aus v NZ was a pretty good game, but if you watch any NRL/Origin you wouldn't have been that surprised at the quality. When the good teams get on top they just finish sets with the ball in your 10m and then back their defence to suffocate you.

In previous years, the first 20 minutes by either team would have blown England away. Its how they manage to maintain the intensity that usually manages to see us off. I always feel that when you play Aus, every try you score against them has to be a well crafted score with some breathtaking skills. Theirs always seem to be relatively straightforward. Any weakness and they're onto it. They spotted that Smith was injured in the penalty leading up to the last try and ran straight at him on the next play. How many times do Aus concede a try one out from a penalty?

Hope England can play to their strengths this afternoon and not get drawn into a forward battle or I'll be watching Aus v Samoa next week.
 
After the 2017 WC Semi Final v NZ (last second defeat), I swore I'd never watch another England game live. I recorded all the last WC games but got lured back in again this year. I'm traumatised :)

Too many players had bad games/made poor decisions. Off the top of my head

Young knock on under no pressure
Young subsequently jamming in and coming up with fresh air from the scrum
Watkins knocking on over the line
Watkins falling asleep in defence. Twice. To be fair the whole right side defence had a day to forget
Radley throwing a pass to an intercept specialist in Crichton.
Whitehead throwing a miracle, hail Mary pass when he had got the team into a good drop goal position in the last minute
Welsby knocking on in GP extra time in his own half with no one within 5m of him
Tomkins forward pass in GP extra time in his own half. Seriously, making two mistakes in your own half like that is just inviting the other team to win.

We just can't seem to go set to set with anybody when we are put under pressure. Our players only have 6-8 games as season where they have to do this and its no preparation for coming up against battle hardened NRL players who have to do it every week or not get picked

Pressure is off on Saturday now. Have a few pints and watch Aus put 50+ on Samoa
 
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