Aussies Break English Hearts England simply needed to avoid defeat to make it through to next Sunday's Four Nations Final where they would again meet today's opponents, Australia. Any thoughts that Australia would field a weakened side were crushed when they announced their strongest line-up, the Aussies determined to make it a clean sweep of victories in the group stage. Wayne Bennett rang the changes for England with Kevin Brown, James Graham, and John Bateman all in the starting line up with George Williams moved to the bench after his starring role last week. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Aussies Break English Hearts England simply needed to avoid defeat to make it through to next Sunday's Four Nations Final where they would again meet today's opponents, Australia. Any thoughts that Australia would field a weakened side were crushed when they announced their strongest line-up, the Aussies determined to make it a clean sweep of victories in the group stage. Wayne Bennett rang the changes for England with Kevin Brown, James Graham, and John Bateman all in the starting line up with George Williams moved to the bench after his starring role last week. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Australia had too much quality all over the park

Callum Watkins has had a bad season with Leeds and has carried it on into the test series. He has done virtually nothing. Surely Dan Sarginson would have been better after Watkins' lack lustre performances in the previous weeks. Aussies still too good for us though.

Can't agree with that, Sarginson is even worse at this level.

Our pack, supposed to be England's strength was completely out played and we already knew that they would be better in every other position.
Hall and McGilvery both went well though.
Williams should have started, with Clarke on the bench.
Brown offered nothing extra and the bench was weaker by having Williams on there.

Hall and McGillvary both did better than I thought they'd do considering they've been e this year.

Hopefully this myth about our pack being better than the Aussies will now be seen as such.

Picking Pinhead proved pitifully pointless.

And if Watkins played at any other club, he'd be nowhere near the England setup full stop.

I remember years ago in some palatial room Andy Farrell etc being interviewed after another defeat by the Aussies, and how we had to learn from them blah blah blah......I also remember most people carrying the argument that it would benefit the national team if more players played in the NRL, which quite a few have recently, and in the likes of Ellis, Burgess, Graham have done very successfully, so when are we going to see some improved performances at international level?!! Also, what worries me personally is, I actually enjoyed watching Scotland v Australia at union yesterday, and thought some of the skill levels in that game were better than in today's game??

Brown was dire, waste of a squad position. The attitude towards the back end was poor, you can't ruffle an Aussie team they see it week in week out. How Burgess stayed on after a cheap shot like that only Hicks knows

What a laugh when when commentators said that Watkins was a world class centre pity he is not in the same class as GI or Dugan

How you can pick Watkins out of that first out of everybody suggests you're clueless about rugby and just go on club basis.

And the fact that you are defending him, make you the same.
The point was spot on.
Had Watkins played for a less fashionable club, and they'd finished bottom 4, he would not have been selected.

The Bennett experience has failed and been no improvement on his predecessor......he is the tinker man of RL and doesn't know his best England team bringing in Brown for such an important game.



Brown was out of his depth and offered very little.....Williams should have started and Clarke should have been on the bench. As for the outside backs they lack world class quality apart from Hall and Mcgillvary who appeared a constant threat with ball in hand.

Don't think Bateman is either big enough, strong enough or quick enough at this level for second row and is another weak link. They should have given Gareth Ellis one last shot.

International RL has become a pretty boring spectacle with the continued complete domination of the game by Australia.