I don't know why Warmsley, Williams and Bateman were there,. Surely we have better, I notice the man of steel was absent 

Haven't read any of it, but he wasn't at fault for any of those. Like you say, the only time he got the ball wide was off a ball miles behind him, where he couldn't pick it up, then the only other thing was when he went up for the high ball and his own team mates got in his way, as well as Aussies competing and couldn't get to it. Apart from that, he was good under the high ball again, made good meters taking it out of back play & he wasn't far off taking that kick to the corner to score. The problem was England basically ran him into touch the few times they gave him the ball and Wardle has been poor in the centres in both games. As was said in comms, England played far too laterally and gave neither wingers much room to do anything, but especially Tom, because they attacked down the left more. 
The Aussies' first try had nothing to do with Tom, it was scored on our right side where Young and Farnsworth were, the Aussies had 3 men in motion and then Munster ran behind Crighton and should have given himself up but didn't which caused Williams to hesitate sliding across, then Farnsworth took the dummy and Williams should have still made the tackle before the line but munster had too much pace and momentum. 


It was their second try where Cleary kicked high to the corner and Tom came running out, got a good jump, but England players shepherding sort of got in his way, as well as the Aussie No.3, who leapt well & managed to bat it back and then it got a lucky bounce into Young's hands, I can't see how Tom could of done anymore. Crazy how anyone can pick Tom up for that. It was a good kick, too many people in his way, and they got a good bounce of the ball. But then again, I've seen the Hull KR fans crying about Burgess not being picked, so it's probably more to do with that imo, Apart from that, Tom's been really solid in both games, especially out of the back, making meters and tbf that's the only high ball he's come close to not taking in 160 minutes and he didn't have losose carry out of the back.


One thing I've really noticed about these past 2 games is that Wardle isn't very good at this level anymore. He's been getting absolutely monstered in every hit-up he takes and offers nothing in attack at all. Also, Warmsley came on, got straight stood up and missed a tackle in his first bit of action, which led to a bit of a run from the Aussies. He then took a hit up not long after and dropped the ball. He makes the odd good run, but his side-to-side movement has gone & his best days seem long behind him imo, similar to last week.


Everyone had a really solid first half, but those 2 sort of lucky tries just kicked the wind out of us. Knowles had an absolute monster of a game, was like a man possessed and really brought the rest of the forwards along with him.

It’s always the 50 minute game change. That’s when Aus clock up another gear and we can’t, always been the same since I’ve watched. We gave it a good dig, but when you’re playing a country who’s No 1 sport is RL, have 10 X’s the talent pool and 3 X’s the Cap I’m happy with what we achieved. RL barely scrapes into the top 10 for sports in the U.K. 


Anyone bagging Johnstone in today’s game really don’t watch or understand RL. He’s up against the worlds best winger who out jumps the best the NRL have to offer week in week out. The balls he got off Williams would have been appalling if we were playing Serbia never mind Aus, hospital ball after hospital ball. McMeekan was decent. 

Yeah, Big Mike did even better than I thought, and I originally thought he had a solid game. He made the most meters of any middle forward on either side and didn't miss a single tackle.



As for Tom, in both games, he completely handled what was meant to be the best winner in the game. As I said, Tom kept getting passes literally on the touch line and had to do something with them each time, so not to get dragged into touch. England hasn't a clue how to use either Tom or Dom. The backline needs to get flatter and play on the gain line, learn how to draw the opposition, and get the backrowers cutting angles in the opposite direction as either runners or dummy runners, stuff you get taught at U11's tbh..