Tbf is it a leeds thing or what? Sinfield / McGuire / Burrows (to an extent) / Smith etc. have never matched up to the same performance as they shift for leeds every week in internationals. The only leeds players who have are JP and Senior....bar them any Leeds player seems to be pretty average when it comes to internationals. So what is it that makes leeds great? Is it just the team spirit and team cohesion that makes them good, because for me most of their star players look anything but when you take them out a leeds shirt?!!

I think the reason Leeds are such a good team is because they have been surrounded by familiar faces each season for quite a few years now (same as St Helens). This may be the reason why they don't quite live up to expectation when they pull on the England jersey?



I know McGuire has had quite a few chances in the England shirt and never really performed, but i would hate to think it is the end of the road internationally for someone of his calibre seeing as we see much more from him in a Leeds shirt.

As sound as he is off-field, I think McGuire is massively overrated. For me, he is just a support player, much like Myler. Take McGuire out of Burrow's shadow and he has nothing to play with. Today proved that IMO, England looked a much better side when he was subbed.

McGuire seems to be getting all the stick from todays match (well apart from Briscoe) but there were a few more who also never turned up for the match.



The biggest disappointment for me was, I have just found out that Morley actually played ! I never saw him, did he actually play ?



JP was also absent and these two were a major part of why we got 'busted' in the first half.



Crabtree was our best frontrower today and Graham wasn't too bad either.Westwood surprised me, as I didn't expect anything from him, played OK.



If these frontrowers don't 'get a grip' we will lose against NZ this coming weekend.



As Artie Beetson said today "Bring back the biff !"

I don't agree with the bit in bold. He was awesome in the 2004 Tri-Nations and it was a travesty that Nobby dropped him for Harris at Elland Road.

It may be my fevered imagination, but I got the impression that McGuire and Sinfield seemed determined to keep Tomkins out of the action in the first half of yesterday's game. He barely got a pass, and whenever he was waiting as first receiver, he was either used as a dummy or was simply ignored as the ball was turned the other way. Only in the latter stages, as it became painfully obvious that McGuire was out of his depth, was Sam brought to the fore.



Normally I wouldn't believe such a thing, but given the persistant rumours about how the Leeds and St Helens players childishly blanked each other during last year's tournament, I'm beginning to wonder. Could it be they were peeved that their mate Rob hadn't got the nod?

similarly in the france game. Myler was starved of the ball. When he finally did get it, he scored twice.

Far too often in both the France and Australia games, England are trying to be the Kevin + Danny show and they seem to forget that some others in the team actually exist.



Is it any surprise that when Kevin switched to distributing from dummy half, that suddenly Sam could be a lot more involved in the game?

I'm not sure if I fully agree with this. To me, Sam looked to be avoiding the ball at times in the first half, standing far too deep to get involved. Once he overcame his nerves and realised that he is good enough to mix it at this level he got himself more involved.



I now await my ritual slaughter.

I agree.



As for Mcguire, I felt sorry for him - its awful to see a player so bereft of confidence. Anyone who's played sport at a decent level will tell you how horrible that feels.

I'll feel sorrier for us if he plays next weekend and is as inept in defence as he was last weekend.