Rugby League Ashes 2025: England v Australia Kangaroos

We're not big enough in the forwards....simple as.
The two oncoming props are our two biggest, yet they're not international class.
We're a pack of second rowers of differing sizes.
Aussies have made easy yards in the tackle too many times. They're good for their lead, despite a forward looking pass.

Come on, England
 
forward passes are pretty much mandatory nowadays - the idea that you can catch the ball 3 yards in front of where it was passed is madness. I think that pass @chesterbells mentions should have been called.

This is fairly typical rugby league - the ref is seeing most of the small stuff, and relying on video ref for big stuff.

I assume for the disallowed try that the ref was fairly certain about the collision on Young as the scoring pass was yards forward and he wasn't going to review that!

The punditry and commentary is plain terrible (has Noble said anything that makes sense in the last 20 years?).

The two interceptions from the Aussie fullback are pretty remarkable but I don't know what the difference between those and deliberate knock-ons are (the first maybe he knocked up so would be okay, the second suggests that you can just stop the pass).
 
lefty goldblatt said:
We're not big enough in the forwards....simple as.
The two oncoming props are our two biggest, yet they're not international class.
We're a pack of second rowers of differing sizes.
Aussies have made easy yards in the tackle too many times. They're good for their lead, despite a forward looking pass.

Come on, England
Click to expand...

The most impressive thing for England is that Australia haven't created that many scoring chances.
Does the HIA failure of the Aussie captain mean they only have 16? I'm not clear what an 18th man is for - late withdrawals?
 
No dominance in the centre (so no space for a runner to exploit wide), no real speed/threat on the left.

Munster seemed to have all the time he needed, did Williams create much? (and why did he run into four defenders and drop the ball?)

Heaven knows what Australia will be like by two weeks time.
 
Pretty predictable stuff. -12.5 on the handicap was an easy call. Now they're warmed up, I suspect it'll be even more one sided next week.

Who was that scouse guy on commentary?
 
Our super League miles off the standard of the NRL. Gap needs to narrow a he'll of a lot before we have a hope in hell
 
lefty goldblatt said:
We're not big enough in the forwards....simple as.
The two oncoming props are our two biggest, yet they're not international class.
We're a pack of second rowers of differing sizes.
Aussies have made easy yards in the tackle too many times. They're good for their lead, despite a forward looking pass.

Come on, England
Click to expand...
Bateman was good in defence but didn’t make an impact with BIH.

Trout should have played from the start, and should next week. He’s bigger, stronger and faster with BIH than Bateman. Then, off the bench, it needs someone like Nsemba on there skittling a few of their lads. Like you say we were a bit undersized.

I thought Walmsley looked 35 out there today. Been a great player, it’s good he’s been injury free for the first season in ages and maybe deserves his place in the squad as his experience is probably good to have in camp, but he looked too old.

Welsby was crap!

Other than that everyone else was just safe and too fucking nice!

I listened to a podcast with Gareth Ellis this week where he said he looks back on his international career and thinks ‘I just didn’t go after it enough and I really regret that’. And that was pretty much how the whole team played today apart from Young and Farnworth.

Nobody else was anywhere near aggressive enough.

We know we aren’t as good as the Aussies. The Kangaroos are probably the most invested in and elite sports team on the planet in ratio to the money there is in any sport. They are incredibly good and it’s close to impossible to beat them in a test series. And, frighteningly, they have a fair bit of improvement in them from today’s performance… but England have five times the improvement in us there from what we showed.

Let’s hope there’s a bit of anger in the camp this week and we make a fucking game of it next week because it’s not impossible ti beat then in a test match… let’s fucking go after them!
 
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Stephen230 said:
Pretty predictable stuff. -12.5 on the handicap was an easy call. Now they're warmed up, I suspect it'll be even more one sided next week.

Who was that scouse guy on commentary?
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James Graham. Former England and Great Britain captain (St Helen’s, Canterbury and St George player).
 
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stockportblue said:
Our super League miles off the standard of the NRL. Gap needs to narrow a he'll of a lot before we have a hope in hell
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There is talk in Aus that the NRL want to take over Super League and make it an ‘NRL Europe’ under their stewardship.

The talk is that they want a 33% stake in the league but hold all the positions of management.

The RFL have probably taken us as far as they ever could. They’ve restructured at the top recently but Sport England aren’t happy with it and are even talking about withholding funds as a result of what they’ve done… which would ruin the sport.

The NRL rumour can’t come soon enough to be realised, for me.
 
I will be there on Saturday and at Headingley.

The Aussies are in a different class but we outfoxed ourselves with failing to complete all those attacking sets of six in the first half. I’m pretty sure Samoa, Tonga. And New Zealand would have put points on the board in the first half against the rusty kangaroos. The second half was pretty much one way traffic and and the score could have got sillly.

The Aussies kicking game was far superior and they had 4 or 5 top playmakers on the field for most of the game. We need to start off fast in Liverpool or will get another good hiding. The Aussies have got more strength in depth to come as Mitch Moses and Bradman Best would walk into
our teams, being players that have excelled in the State of Origin.

There’s no crime in being outclassed. Throwing away several good positions in the first half was another matter.

Farnworth and Young gave it their all.
 
MillionMilesAway said:
forward passes are pretty much mandatory nowadays - the idea that you can catch the ball 3 yards in front of where it was passed is madness. I think that pass @chesterbells mentions should have been called.

This is fairly typical rugby league - the ref is seeing most of the small stuff, and relying on video ref for big stuff.

I assume for the disallowed try that the ref was fairly certain about the collision on Young as the scoring pass was yards forward and he wasn't going to review that!

The punditry and commentary is plain terrible (has Noble said anything that makes sense in the last 20 years?).

The two interceptions from the Aussie fullback are pretty remarkable but I don't know what the difference between those and deliberate knock-ons are (the first maybe he knocked up so would be okay, the second suggests that you can just stop the pass).
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They don’t send players to the bin for deliberate knock on in rugby league. Maybe it’s an area where rugby Union officiating is superior.

The officials were pretty clueless today bit no
Worse than England’s attacking plays.
 
Does anyone know if there are dedicated rugby buses from the city centre to the Hill Dickinson next week? Was thinking of getting the train to Lime St from Eccles.
 
chesterbells said:
Oh well, a chance to check out what the bars are like at Everton’s new stadium next Saturday.
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I’ll be there too.

Expecting another whooping.

The funniest thing about today was the absolute state of James Grahams accent, I’ve only just stopped laughing and was pretty sure Robbie Paul was pudding himself laughing interviewing him
 
.db. said:
James Graham. Former England and Great Britain captain (St Helen’s, Canterbury and St George player).
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Ah, should have got that, thanks.

I spent more time trying to work out who he was than watching the game. I had him as most likely ex Saints due to the accent and definitely played in Australia, 'cos he had a bit of Aussie twang mixed in as well. Annoyed now.
 
.db. said:
There is talk in Aus that the NRL want to take over Super League and make it an ‘NRL Europe’ under their stewardship.

The talk is that they want a 33% stake in the league but hold all the positions of management.

The RFL have probably taken us as far as they ever could. They’ve restructured at the top recently but Sport England aren’t happy with it and are even talking about withholding funds as a result of what they’ve done… which would ruin the sport.

The NRL rumour can’t come soon enough to be realised, for me.
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I know life's all about opinions, but i think that would absolutely fuck the game in the UK.

The NRL would just "cream off" the top SL talent, and we would suffer a brain drain. They've been doing it since the SL started, and loads of them come back with their tails between their legs, when they (the clubs) realise that they've bought players who aren't good enough to play NRL rugby. Case in point, Dodd from St Helens. Rumours are he's coming back after one season.

To use an analogy from another sport....golf.

The European Tour doesn't really exist anymore. All the Europe players in the recent Ryder Cup ply their trade on the PGA Tour, as do any other decent golfer. The PGA "own" the European Tour now, and it's been rebadged as the DP World Tour. Take a look at the results for these competitions for the last few years, and even keen golf fans would struggle to say they even know any names in the Top 10 places for each competition.

If the NRL ran us, we'd have teams made up of promising youngsters (thatll soon be on the next QANTAS flight), and NRL journeymen, on their last paydays.

We'd be semi pro again.
 
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threespires said:
Looked it from that 2nd camera angle but they didn't look so I assume it was just the camera angle.

We've survived being under the cosh last few mins so let's see what we can do now.
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It was a forward pass but the TMO can't look at them as you can't definatively tell for a lot of them.
 
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