England's best chance of reaching the final is to catch Australia cold and beat them in Cardiff, thus opening up the easier route - avoiding both of the big two until they get there.



Irrespective of how much England may huff and puff, I don't expect them to lose to anyone other than Australia or New Zealand, who I in turn don't expect to lose to anyone other than each other. A England win in the opening game paves the way for an Aus V NZ semi.



I don't really see it though.

Question for any stattos out there, when did England/GB last lose to NZ on home soil?

And paves the way for England to lose to Samoa in the other semi

2005 Tri-Nations?

hmmm?



This team is poor on backs and halfbacks. We've selected too many 2nd rowers that won't get a game.

I was kinda agreeing with much of what you said , until you mentioned Bridge !





Your either on glue or his dad .

Bridge put 2 try making passes away to Monaghan that no other player in the league could have made last week! He had less room than if he had have been in a telephone box

Also should be playing for Ireland.

You mean Steve McNamara the ex 2nd row has picked too many players in err the 2nd row position, who does he think he is, Brian McDermott?

Can't agree with the selection of Tom Burgess or Rob Burrow.



There are other selections that I may not have made myself (eg McIllorum, Ablett) but you can understand why they have been selected.



Myler is incredibly unlucky to have missed selection. I would have had him plus Ferres in the squad instead of the other two.

Do you reckon Ratch has paid the price for not having a settled position over this season? I'm also praying that the squad announcement does'nt have an adverse effect on the lads that thought they may have been in with a shout for inclusion.

I think we have a fair chance of beating New Zealand.



We could get a moment of great excitement by knocking out the champions and go in to the final against the Aussies with a load of jingoism and excitement with people on these forums convincing themselves now is our time, the Aussies aren't all that, in the past we've showed them too much respect, if we get in to them we can win the World Cup.



Then the final and reality will hit as the Aussies will school us. They will give us a worse lesson in the final than they will give us in the group game, because the Aussies will not lose the final this time after what happened last time. Occasionally Aussie teams coast in second gear and you can catch them short but this year whether its us or NZ in the final they will be brutally torn by a switched on Aussie side.



After that look for meltdown on here about McNamara's selections or non selections that cost us that final plus also some hard questions about whether bringing guys like the Monaghans over here is destroying British rugby league because how do we know there were not some local lads better than them but they never got their chance?