Samoa were a side that would usually get beaten by tier 1 teams prior to this world cup...tamalolos defection to Tonga was a huge movement for making international RL more competitive

I personally don’t agree with some on here slating Young’s defence. Anyone who has played the game in the back line knows that if there’s a 3 on 2 and your centre jams in, you follow suit. Watching it back. Watkins goes with Young about two steps behind. That indicates Watkins hasn’t let Young know that he’s jamming. Watkins missed the one on one for Lafai’s try, dropped the ball when over the line for a certain try, jammed in, missed the tackle, switched off and jogged for the Ligi Sao try. Insaod before the tournament playing players out of position would be the undoing of England. This was just one instant.

I’m not saying Young wasn’t at fault at all. He dropped a sitter which led to a try.

Radley intercept was a shocker. Could see it coming a mile off especially when Crichton put himself in the line.

Tomkins at fullback was a bad call. Always passed to the winger, never linked out the back very well. Kicking game was good until the semi in which he became remarkable average. But to be fair his positioning was good for receiving kicks.

Williams, Whitehead, Farnworth and Burgess were all class yesterday. Neither of them 3 deserved to lose. Especially Whitehead.

We go again in 3 years!

Should have a permanent 6 nations every year for me:

Australia
NZ
England
Tonga
Samoa
PNG/Fiji/France/Wales/Cook Islands etc to play for the 6th spot.

Could have maybe done with one Semi on Sat and one today, but then it cuts down recovery time for the final. I thought Elland Road and the Emirates were good choices of venue.

Emirates was a great stadium, easy access from kings cross too, wouldn't be a bad place to host the challenge cup final in the future

Do we take losses so badly at international RL as we don't know when the next game will be / there are so few so each defeat seems to matter more? There are 4 England rugby union games that you can book ticket for already but none for rugby league, if we knew what the next game was we could review what went wrong, and what can change, now it's just hypothetical scenarios for our next game as nobody knows what it is / when it will be

The lack of a plan is a reuccuring joke. Despite lower than expected sales thousands from Newcastle, Coventry, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and London have attended games this World Cup.

I'd be offering those in the North East who bought WC tickets a cheap Magic Weekend ticket for starters, and if England are playing games at home next year get them announced and offer anyone who bought a WC ticket 'priority' tickets, make people feel they are getting something special.

If the marketing department had anything about them, they'd have been handing out flyers as fans left the Emirates on Saturday for next year's challenge cup final as well

But that would mean they'd have to have a modicum of common sense and forward thinking

Popular opinion in Australia is that the SOO rules need changing so that players can't pick a Tier 2 nation over Australia and still take part.

If Samoa were to win on Saturday that would definitely happen and you'll never see a Tier 2 nation in a final again.

Bloody Aussies.

England Men and Women to play France in April's international break.

Good to have something in the diary but not sure id have gone with Warrington as the venue as both last years England game and the WC group games had poor crowds (crowds at Hull were also poor before anyone pipes up

) id have gone with a small ground in London to try and attract French ex pats, maybe Brentford as its a modern ground and the area has some RL history.

Ideally that would be a warm up fixture for an international against a Tier 1 nation the week after. The they could play a larger competition in the international window at the end of the season. If we are touring at the end of the year a team comes here, if we are not touring we go overseas for 2 games.

England need to play a Tier 1 fixture in this country every year at a big stadium (North London or Newcastle would be a good choice based on previous experience). Any momentum from this tournament will be gone if we only play France in a half empty small ground next year, and we know Australia don't travel the year before a world cup.

At the moment Tier 1 would have to include Samoa, as they made the final.