That's why the English are worried.

Of what relevance is the attendance? It's completely irrelevant in the scheme of things. Crowds do not better coaches and players make. The idea behind the game is pointless also. Having what was considered a harder game than a test against \France will achieve what exactly? We all already know how good the Aussies and Kiwis are, how will this one game change that? What would that game have told McNamara that he didn't already know about his squad?



SOO is 34 players chosen who all have a shot at the Kangaroo jumper. This game is 17 England players apparently trying to get better by playing pension pot fillers. Where's the competition for the shirt or the improvement behind the scenes?



Send McNamara and a few others to an NFL training camp to learn all they can about physical and mental preparation and how to extract maximum performance from an athlete, never mind farting about in Union like he seems to be doing.

As preparation for the Four Nations, it's staged at entirely the wrong time of the year. Form and injuries are likely to mean that the combinations playing for England in that game aren't going to be the ones lining up in their next game. Put the Four Nations start back a week and play it the weekend after the Grand Final if you're going to persist with it as a concept.



In terms of the game, it looked like two sides thrown together at the last minute running very basic gameplans because that's all the coaches could implement in the time they had. One side was just marginally better at it than the other when it counted most.

Even if England had ages to prepare we would be running basic plays because McNamara is turd. We need a good coach. There is a lot of potential in the playing staff but no one to give them the elite coaching they need. Also the knigts need a game against the likes of France to give other players the chance to show what they can do.

i have talked to one youngplayer who was coached by Macca at Bradford and he was very clear that Macca was awful as a coach. he used to give big long lectures as his team talks , that were really complicated and sounded like they were from a textbook, his exact quote was, " he would drone on and eventually we all got bored and stopped listening".



If that was the effect he had on young and upcoming players god knows what the experienced pros think of him.

sums it all up really....our best players are benefiting from far superior training methods at club level from the likes of aussies maguire,brown,simmons or bluey when he was at leeds then our best players go off to england training camp to listen to a coach who's coaching methods have never won him anything......



its like university graduates going back to primary school

Name please.

Where was this talent in the last World Cup under Tony Smith (or was Tony Smith also a "non-elite" coach)?



Come to that, where has it been for the last 15- 20 years?



You could put McNamara in charge of Australia and Wayne Bennett in charge of England. The result would be absolutely no different.

bet it would

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it.



Quite how you've come it I've no idea, given that once the players get on the field the coach has a limited amount he can do to influence their performance.



Changing coaches won't make Sam Tomkins better than Billy Slater, or Luke Robinson better than Cameron Smith, or Atkins/Shenton better than Inglis/Hodges.



It's a British disease passed down from the round ball game that if it's all going wrong on the pitch then it's entirely down to the coach and simply changing that one person will make all the difference.

wayne bennett would let em play......McNamara does'nt





can i just say as well......theres a few people whinging about the exiles being over 30's has beens





the average age of the exiles was 29!....with 200 test caps





in todays origin game 2.....theres a fair few 29-30 years olds....and a couple of 34 & 35 year olds...and steve price was 36 last year

__________________

Average age was 30

Youngest 24, 3 x 25 year olds a 28 year old and the rest over 30, hardly a squad that will be together for the future.



You may have missed it but Steve Price did not play SOO last year and retired in June last year.