Four Nations Final England v Australia

[Yetti]

Saturday 19.30pm. Elland Road Stadium, Leeds.

Four nations Final.

Opinions?

We owe the convicts more than one beating after all these years of being beaten by them, and after last years rout in the world cup we do more than ever. Which gives us plenty of motivation to get stuck into them. Not that we should need any extra motivation to beat the aussies.

But. They also have the will to want to prove that they are the best in the world again, after last years final.

I want to be hopeful and want us to win, but the pessimist realist in me, doesnt think we have a chance. Again it'll depend on if we can get a good start and don't loose sight of them in the first 30 minutes. The French didn't and they had a weaker team on paper.

Come on England!!

[gateaux]

Wish I was going to this would love to be there if we do manage to beat them. I can't see it happening but I don't think its impossible.

I hope we use the same team as last week and go out there with a "we can win" mindset not an "its Autralia were stuffed mentality"

[cheesybunnet]

come on australia. whup them englanders...lol

[silent]

I'm allowing myself to be mildly confident of a win. But, whatever happens, I hope we at least give them a good game.

[Phooey]

England unchanged for final match
FOUR NATIONS FINAL: England v Australia
Venue: Elland Road, Leeds Date: Sat, 14 November Kick-off: 1930 GMT
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online, plus text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles. Also live on Sky Sports 2.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sinfield impressed against New Zealand after starting at hooker
England coach Tony Smith has named an unchanged side for Saturday's Four Nations final showdown with Australia.

Kevin Sinfield is again set to play out of position at hooker, with youngsters Sam Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond will continue as the half-back pairing.

But Smith has not ruled out making some late changes to the line-up from within the 17-man squad announced.

Australia forward Luke Lewis will make his first start for the Kangaroos, who have named six players on the bench.

The Penrith Panthers second-rower Lewis was on the bench for Australia's last two games against England and France and comes into the starting XIII in place of Anthony Watmough.

...

England: S Briscoe (Hull KR); P Fox (Hull KR), C Bridge (Warrington), M Shenton (Castleford), R Hall (Leeds); S Tomkins (Wigan), K Eastmond (St Helens); A Morley (Warrington), K Sinfield (Leeds), J Graham (St Helens), J Peacock (Leeds, capt), G Ellis (Wests Tigers), S Burgess (Bradford). Subs: J Roby (St Helens), E Crabtree (Huddersfield), B Westwood (Warrington), J Wilkin (St Helens).

Australia: B Slater (Melbourne); J Hayne (Parramatta), G Inglis (Melbourne), J Hodges (Brisbane), B Morris (St George Illawarra); D Lockyer (Brisbane, capt), J Thurston (North Queensland); P Civoniceva (Penrith), C Smith (Melbourne), B Hannant (Canterbury), L Lewis (Penrith), P Gallen (Cronulla), N Hindmarsh (Parramatta). Subs (from): D Shillington (Canberra), S Thaiday (Brisbane), A Watmough (Manly), K Gidley (Newcastle), M Jennings (Penrith), B White (Melbourne).

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/8356005.stm

[silent]

Unchanged is good. That's what most of us wanted to see.

[chnwh]

Come on boys

[silent]

can't wait

[cheesybunnet]

no choice

[Phooey]

Is that a Typo Cheesy?

A&N instead of O&I ?

[Yetti]

Well where do we start.

The first 60 was brilliant, but we just ran out of steam, and you can't do that against Australia. I don't think we deserved the hammered that came in the last 15 minutes of the game either but these things happen. I think we have to take some pride in the fact that we are improving and moving forward.


The main turning point came when Shenton got injured in the game, which was also the point where mister bone idle came on too, we were only 6 behind when that happened, it seemed to knock the stuffing out of the side. And we leaked points down that side after he came off. Hope he recovers from that quickly as it looked quite serious.

We can match them, but we need to remove our mental block. The way forward has to be to scrap the MM and the extra round of playoffs and have a 'select' game, to increase the intensity of the game in superleague if we are to over take them.


Special mention to that cock end of a saints fan sat behind us, who whinged, moaned and bleated about every pass, tackle and play through out the game.

[chnwh]

Shenton was stood with the players at the end I think (sure it was him)

Burgess was again excellent and took his two tries well (the first was brilliant) but i'm still upset about the Inglis try really. Rather than chasing the game in the last 15-20 we should have been level at the least having lead at half time. We were always going to crumble once we went two scores behind.

[ILYA KURYAKIN]

We were always going to crumble ..... it was just a case of the Aussies deciding when.

[Phooey]

Must learn to play with a kicking game both in defence and attack.

We had no attack (Tomkins & Eastmond were conspicuous in their absence) and our kicking game was terrible.
Whereas the Aussies kicking game was a joy to behold and England had no answer for it.

Once again we showed that playing the game under our own terms can reap rewards but as soon as we let the Aussies play their game and try to match them, it doesn't work.

I don't think that the best team necessarly won, but the best team at playing THEIR game won and sucked us right in.