OK no surprise at the result, or really at the way it panned out, the difference basically that Aus don't panic and make fewer errors, and we sadly panicked and kept coughing up the ball on the rare occasions we got to their end. And that damned ankle tap on Watkins



BUT but but ....

It made me very proud to see our lads Sam Burgess, Tom Burgess, Elliot Whitehead and John Bateman, giving the illustrious Aussies as good as they were getting. And a special mention to The Man (Some on here) Said Can't Play, Luke Gale, who after a sensational season with Cas, now more than matched it with the best in the world, and rose to the occasion mightily, doing the stuff he does best.

A bittersweet game, but the pain was eased by watching our lads, for me, at least.

We had a few other ex. academy players repping out there too didn't we?

Kopzcak, Addy and Roberts all played.

Not bad considering the downward spiral we've been on for the last decade.

Also Ben Hellewell

And Brandan Wilkinson.

Totally agree FA, seeing some of our ex-stars busting it up with the aussies was a good feeling (almost felt like the Bulls were still in their prime - rather than straggling in League 1).
Despite the result - I actually enjoyed watching it - our boys did us proud.

I concur and I find it irritating that the big mouthed foghorn that is Garry Schofield, who never won any major honours really, starts immediately sounding off about how 'poor' we were. Such an easy position to say "we were e against a e Australian team"...sorry Garry but you just sound like a pleb getting high on the sound of your own voice. He can go suck farts for all I care. Roll on the next World Cup I say.

Schofield has always been full of his own self importance. More often than not, the opinions he spouts turn out to be massively wrong and someone totally blows him out of the water, and yet for some reason League Express keep letting him have a column and people keep having him as part of podcasts. Personally I can't listen to any podcast with his fat mouth involved, and I skip his page in the paper every week.

With Australia likely to be without Thurston, Smith, Cronk and Slater from now on I reckon we should be looking for series wins and to take the world number 1 spot in the next few years.

I know Australia have strength in depth with replacements often better than our first choice players. However, if you take them out of any team they’ll struggle to replace straight away.

problem being is they have a conveyor belt ready to take on the mantle. Ponga, Mitchell, Cleary (who I think has the potential to be their number 7 for years) and of course Munster and Trobejovic. Where as we have no one beneath Gale even now who could step up and take the 7 shirt. Really hope someone comes out of nowhere before the next world cup

He can be a real "rent a quote" and his reaction to the defeat in the League Express was laughable. However, I like the fact that he doesn't toe the party line like almost every other RL journo.

He made a good point about how SL isn't preparing halfbacks for tests but he then didn't go on to offer any solutions other than getting former halfbacks working with the young lads. Is he angling for a job?

It's worth remembering that Schofield came no closer to winning a game that mattered against the Aussies than the England lads did in the WC final.

Agreed but Smith, Thurston and Slater are future immortals the others aren't at that level yet.

If we don't win a series in the next 3-4 years we never will (unless there is a massive shift in popularity in this country).

I remember when Lewis and Sterling retired some said the same thing.

Trouble is the player pool is so big in Australia they will have plenty of great prospects to choose from. Those prospects will begin to improve too as they play in higher pressure NRL games and Origin. Meanwhile Luke Gale's understudies (no idea who they are) will only have a handful of really tough SL games (the rest being fairly easy games) and a few games for England Knights to get them ready to meet the Aussies.

Can't see RL in this country ever becoming massively more popular and increasing its player pool to match Australia's

Just thinking, outside of the likes of Sneyd and Smith the only halfbacks coming through seem to be kids that are a long way from cracking SL never mind playing tests - Richardson, Trueman, Lilley, Patton.