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Good article Paul.

A lot of people will look at Australia's exhibitions against both New Zealand and England, and feel it is now a foregone conclusion.

What a lot of people will not recognise is the standard in the 'emerging nations' groups B and C.

So much quality at the Pacific Island nation's squads and yet little Ireland and Scotland have competed and both won games - exactly what the we wanted taking into consideration the layout of the competition.

People worried that this could turn out to be a bit of a joke. This could not be further from the truth. The game as a whole will benefit massively from this World Cup.

I just hope we set in place a post-season competition for the emerging nations to compete in and further improve the standard of RL outside Britain, Australia & New Zealand.

The game is on the up, I'm very confident, now let's have Greece, Wales, USA, Lebenon, Czech Republic and Germany coming through.

Regards,

R_R

England represent SL. They are the pinnacle of English RL. Fletcher's Blog says it all for me. We need the team to perform as a team, defend as a team and more than anything show some guts. Tens of thousands of Celtic league and Guinness premiership RU fans could well give this game a look. (Why not it promises to be good rugby). If England look soft they'll make RL look soft and that isn't fair. They have to show some pride in the shirt and put their bodies on the line this time.

Wales RU would have thrashed this team off the park on present showing. Still, in saying that they can pretty well do that to the RU side as well. But what I mean to say is as far as the best rugby side in Britain is concerned they look well down the pecking order.

I think that if they care about international RL and the reputation of SL more than anything they have to be physical and stand up and be counted.

Let's hope they hammer NZ and worry the Aussie press a little.

Is the final not being played in Brisbane or am I flying to the wrong city?

i have watched superleague on cable tv here in sydney, & have always thought your game was loose in the defensive side of things. for example the player who scored the most tries,gardner ,was appalling in in his defence. unfortunatley, I consider that none of the english players would be good enough to play in the Kangaroos side, perhaps due to the large number of aussie playing in the uk who are at best very ordinary players.

I live in NZ and watch both the NRL and Super League. Differences. 1) The NRL teams play with more structure, tighter defences and less risk taking is allowed. SL is actually more fun to watch due to its more open style. The fact is the tighter NRL play is the more competitive. 2) Most SL players come from small towns in one region of England. The NRL draws from big cities and small towns from a sizable area of the country. There are several times the number of League players in Australia than the UK. 3) Football (soccer) dominates the English sporting scene. Most English boys want to become EPL players first and foremost. Many Australian boys want to be NRL stars. 4) Many of the England team look jaded and past their best. This team peaked a year or two ago. Australia has so much talent, they never trough in form. They will always win most matches between the nations whilst all of the above apply.

Look,everyone is going to get a stuffing by this Aussie team if their game plan is'nt up to it for the full 80 mins.
Lets look at the game in a bit more detail.To start with a couple of dodgy refereeing decisions in the first ten mins put us on the back foot.
We found it difficult to make yardage because the Aussie ref(just how that happens is beyond me)allowed the Aussies to lie on at the tackle ensuring that we face a full defence all the time.Our game is based on a lot of quick play the balls and broken play.Most of the NRL games are extremely boring imo.
So we could'nt adapt to that quick enough at the start.
We competed for about 40 mins from 10 mins to 50 mins and the wheels always fall off when you are playing catch up against the Aussies.As dissappointed as I was watching the match you can explain a lot of the problems.We do seem to lack someone to move us around the pitch and did'nt seem to have a game plan.I am sure we did but someone did'nt execute it.
I suspect a decent showing against the Kiwis will help but we need to find a way to make ground quickly or we will be in trouble.
They are not bigger or stronger than we are just quicker in thought.We can compete but we need a level playing field and neutral officials please.If you watch the match carefully you could see one of the touch judges smiling when the aussies scored.

Paul, what a great blog, also there are some great comments buried in the replies.

I have been watching RL for 30+ years, I have always been impressed with the Aussies and NZ teams, all across the team they can all play the ball AND DO, some one made a comment about NRL being more organised and SL being more about broken play, well imo this builds skills in the NRL , they all need to be able to pass the ball and do do so from the first tackle, here in the SL we are guilty of playing one up rugby u ntil the 4th or 5th tackle before we even try to move the ball, the broken play bit, well that comes from not being able to defend, England look short of ideas and inventions, Plan A doesn't work there appears to be no plan B or any alloance for creativity (if we had anybody who could).

I love RL and enjoy watching any game, but I supect we will get hammered again by NZ

One thing we hear so little of in articles like this is the fact that so very few English players have tested themselves in the Australian game. Morley has been there and come back a much better player. Ellis is off there, and will surely be better for it. Now imagine if the English team had 9 or 10 players, each with 3+ years Australian experience under their belts. How much stronger would England be then.
You look at the Australian team and the quality is clear. So also is the intensity, the concentration, the fitness, the imagination, and the confidence that they can play that way for the full 80 minutes. Australia scored roughly 1 point per minute for the last half hour. There was no let up.
So why do English players not go over to play in Australia. Lack of opportunity ? Lack of appetite ?
Come on lads, go and play in Australia for a few years, then England will stand a chance in the next World Cup.

good points made - am hoping for better things tomorrow.....
Any chance of a note or two on the women's games?? The girls worked their socks off to prepare and I've read that their first game kicked it!
And then there's the wheelchair boys....
Please....

I hope the past two games have been part of a cunning plan by Smith to fool the Roos and the Kiwis into believing that we haven’t got a clue so we can take them off guard when it matters.

I am looking forward to seeing what progress England have made since their last match.

There can be no doubt that the build up to the US Presidential election was a factor in distracting some of the English players. Now that Obama has won, perhaps the team can focus on the match in hand.

As a result, I think we shall see a much better performance from England.

I was wrong. Clearly England's stamina had been sapped by staying up late to watch the election results coming in from the USA , celebrating Obama's victory and the subsequent emotional and physical exhaustion.