I'm not sure if this as already been brought up, but I can't help but think that playing against the Welsh is good preparation for playing the Aussies & Kiwis.
Then we play the French, which I know are part of the Four Nations, but again, its hardly play off intensity stuff.
The Aussies played the Kiwis in a incredibly ruthless game. So they seemed far more fine tuned for the week after. It took us 35 minutes to get into the game & match there intensity. After that, we gave them a bloody good game. I appreciate, there might have been an element of the Aussies putting the que back in the rack, but they do not want to be nilled in a half against us.
Why can't the RL give us a couple of hard games to get into it? We're not gonna get it from any of the home nations or France, but what about a team put together from the Super League? A Super League Overseas Team?

I'm not making excuses, cos the Aussie backs are incredible, but a better start & we could have had a chance.

I no this might not be much better but will england play France next year as a warmup game before they travel to aus? The game should prove a better warm up game than this year.

I'd expect us to play a Pacific Islands team once in Oz, to be honest. Would be a huge help to get used to the conditions, and even the style of rugby we'll be facing.

And pray tell - who did the Aussies and Kiwis play warm up games against??

they did'nt and tonga....


personally i think we had an ideally run up to the australia game...a hit out against wales to shake the rust off,a game against france to iron out any problems..then full tilt against the aussies then the kiwis...

Good point really i didnt think about that. Also if we play france in a mid season test then wouuld be little point in playing them again maybe

The Aussies might not have played a friendly, but they're not struggling to break into the top 2 International teams in the World. We needed a better hit out than the Welsh. Trashing a team in a friendly doesn't do much for the team. It does absolutely nothing to prepare our defence for the attacking class of the Aussies & Kiwis. And attacking wise, its not going to take much to break the Welsh line. England didn't know what had hit them in that 1st half hour...they were incredibly off the pace.
Even playing a Pacific Islands team would help, at least they'd get in your faces, and test the line. They'd run us close, which is exactly what you want for preperation.

true...but they drew one game and only won the other by 10points...hardly blinding form is it?

Yes, they won by only 10 points, but they were 26-0 up after 35 minutes.
They drew the other game against the World Champions (and no doubt World no.2). There backs are leagues ahead of ours. We need to be hitting the ground running, just to keep them at bay. They don't need too. Our forwards are top class though. I can't believe we've got such a great set of forwards put such poor backs.

But it did allow Tony Smith to look Smug and offer some paper thin justification for some of the squad selections.

If England had been smart, they would have scheduled the game against the Aussies for the first week - take them off before they had a chance to get a game under their belt and blow away the cobwebs. Allowing the Aussies and Kiwis to smash each other into form and match fitness doesn't do England any favours at all.

Its because naturally your backs are your most gifted athletes.
If you like the rough and tough you're probably playing rugby as a kid anyway..in the forwards, therefore already involved in the system.
To have the best backs we'd need to draw from different pools and approach the most talented athletes as kids