A message for Wigan too?

[FWarrior]

Bennett's words about their attitude ringing in their ears.

Based in Brisbane and away from Super League, Bennett sees no problem with the quality and skill set of his players, but he has identified fatal attitude flaws when it comes to making on-the-field decisions.

"If you look at the context of the game we competed well, but made errors," he said amid a punchy start to his post-match duties.

Bennett soon loosened up, though, adding: "The problem is our inability to continually maintain pressure... not finding the sideline on two occasions, which is pretty important in any context let alone against the best team in the world. Then the stupid penalties we continually give away.

"England are very capable of being a lot better than they are right now. A lot closer than all of you in this room realise.

"Until we get these little problems out of the road... that's manifested by their club football, I have seen that and they get away with it at that level, you can't at this, that's the difference.

"It's not commitment, effort, guys trying hard, good skills. It's all there, they just have to clean their act up and figure out what beats them. They think it's the opposition that beats them."

Bennett and England will take on Samoa down under in a mid-season friendly in May that he hopes will harden their edges ahead of the World Cup next autumn.

He knows, though, that the players have to find a way to prevent themselves falling into a malaise at club level if they are to be ready for the main event.

"This is all about the World Cup. I've learned a lot, they're a good group of blokes, they try really hard, their on- and off-field behaviour is great and they're a pleasure to be a part of," he said.

"I have enjoyed it, immensely. It's been a pleasure and it makes me frustrated, more anger in my case, as they don't show how good they can be.

"It's an easier job than I thought it would be. I thought I would have more issues to deal with, because of their behaviour and discipline. Their club coaches have done a good job with them in lots of areas, they know how to train well.

"The problems will be insurmountable if they don't have a change of attitude and buy into what I know works and won't work any other way. If they don't recognise what's beating them and change their attitude and physical behaviour on the field..."

Even poster boy Sam Burgess was not exempt, Bennett telling the captain he "needs to change" his habit of giving away penalties for club and country.

"It's not just English-based players that have got the problem," he said.

Brilliant interview by a brilliant coach. We won a GF but many of the problems Bennett identified apply just as much to Wigan as the rest of SL and NRL British players. The problems are the root of the Bilko interview last season and why we lose games or play badly in many games. Bilko to replace Nigel Wood?

[FWarrior]

Excellent call about Origin and desire to play more meaningless SL games rather than internationals

[Southern Softy]

England lost because they tried to play Australia at their own game instead of working out a method to utilise their own best skills. Battering down the middle with big guys who play in OZ didn't work.
Interesting how when George came on and used delayed passes and half-dummies that gaps appeared and England looked dangerous.

[FWarrior]

George did one excellemt move on attack. Defensively he was poor. Kev Brown did a couple of good things but not much else. Gareth Widdop did a couiple of nice plays in attack but made two huge mistakes place kicking. There is no such thing as a different way to play RL if you want to win internationally. It is a myth.

[fozzieskem]

Thats a fair assessment of the current state of our game,perhaps it was always going to take an outsider to tell us our game isnt as brilliant as Eddie and Sky would have you believe but also the gap isnt as huge as some of us who follow the NRL think.

As said elsewhere in this thread we need to have more international games,knock some of these endless SL games on the head and get the game growing,ultimetly its in our interests as fans of the sport for it to spread.

[stevethegas]

While hugely disappointing, there is no doubt watching the game that we were competitive for much of the time.

I've been to each of England's games, and it's clear to me that the differences between what we want and what we produce are minor and fixable.

As Bennett said failing to find touch with a penalty kick is simply not good enough.
But the Aussies and Kiwis both found ways of keeping the pressure. They kicked for the in goal area time and again and won repeat sets. We only did that rarely. Each time they kicked the forwards had gained space for the kicker to spot a line. And other onside attackers were coming to swoop. Every time. Whereas we often kicked to a defender and missed tackling people in the in goal.

They didn't stop tackling and because they hadn't spent so much energy defending could keep it for 80 minutes.

And their line speed both attack and defence was that bit faster, so 50+ m per set and restrict us to 30. We did step up some sets and matched them, and the tries we scored against OZ were good tries. But, if only . . . .

20 odd years ago we were always struggling to field an international team. I think we have enough players of the the right calibre now to play at this level. Sure we can argue for ever about our halves and centres, but the guys out there weren't miles off the pace (especially George Williams - good). It is just we need to be a bit sharper with better execution and concentration.

So frustrating though when you think about that first game against the Kiwis which we really could and should have won. But haven't we said that before, and far too many times?

[Wintergreen]

Without being too blunt, just what do you expect?

The amount of money in the game in Australia dwarfs that in the UK.

The cream of the talent in the UK are already either not taking up RL or moving at a very early age.

Look at England RU. Farrell and Ford would be the first choice England half backs had they not gone to RU.

The Salary cap has absolutely murdered the game in this country, propped up by narrow minded Yorkshiremen and Chairmen who are happy to see their wage bill depressed.

Still at least it's keeping clubs out of administration eh? :doz:

[No straw damn us]

Currently England Rugby Union players get £22K per game. So with their five 6 Nations games plus four Autumn Internationals that equates to around £200K per player. How would raising the salary cap ever get near that? Even for a squad of 20 players that's £4 million per year without their club salaries. Where would that money come from?

[Wintergreen]

Currently England Rugby Union players get £22K per game. So with their five 6 Nations games plus four Autumn Internationals that equates to around £200K per player. How would raising the salary cap ever get near that? Even for a squad of 20 players that's £4 million per year without their club salaries. Where would that money come from?

In that case get used to watching an inferior group of players playing in a domestic competition whose standard diminishes each year, then get walloped by the Australians.

In all honesty I can't see it changing in any case. Already RU is taking a foothold in China and the US.

Unless something dramatic happens, high standard RL will be confined to Aus with a semi pro game in the UK.

[John Ferguson]

The commentators made a good point during the game in that whilst the 4 Nations is a good concept, it only gives England 2 real games. I think they got more out the NZ series last year and would really benefit from a 3 test series against Austrailia.