International 4 Nations 2014

[Experimental]

Sorry, I thought this was your first game ever. My mistake.

I enjoy the Rules series too, but lets not kid around here, International RL dates back over a 100 years and is no gimmick.

Sorry, I was meant to write that it's fun to see a game live - as in, regardless of what the sport is, watching it live is always fun. It was my first league game.

Firstly, I'll take back my comment regarding it being a gimmick, because it was thoroughly enjoyable. The games were great, the atmosphere was crazy, and the crowd was fantastic - just under 48k!! Definitely not a gimmick, especially considering the Samoan fans were louder than the other three combined funnily enough.

Probably couldn't find a better game to go to for a first game and the whole day was fantastic. I will admit that the game itself doesn't thrill me like AFL and Rugby does, but it was still great to see so many recognisable faces with Cronk, Inglis, Smith, Cherry-Evans, Thaiday, etc. Being a QLDer, even though I'm not an NRL fan, I will watch State of Origin and know the names and players well.

It was a bit of a disappointment when I realised that so many big names weren't in the Kangaroos lineup, but it was still a great day.

The Kiwis played very well and deserve the win. England too. What a night!

 

[moto748]

Glad you enjoyed the day. The Samoan fans looked quite a sight on TV.

 

[Experimental]

Glad you enjoyed the day. The Samoan fans looked quite a sight on TV.

I was sitting in the allocated Australian section and maybe 1/3 of the area were Samoan fans - crazy people haha.

 

[royboy2]

Missed the matches, but a good result for me Eng & NZL double @ $7.50

 

[moto748]

Nice work!

 

[royboy2]

Never thought the England game would be the result I was worried about

 

[moto748]

Never thought the England game would be the result I was worried about

Really? England were the only side who came close to giving you a game in the World Cup, and we now have a stronger side than then.

 

[Aucklander]

Really? England were the only side who came close to giving you a game in the World Cup, and we now have a stronger side than then.

I would've been worried too with a few minutes to play if I had money on that game.

 

[royboy2]

Thats exactly what I meant, I didn't think that would be the close game

 

[Aucklander]

Teams for this weeks games.

New Zealand
1 Peta Hiku
2 Jason Nightingale
3 Dean Whare
4 Shaun Kenny-Dowall
5 Manu Vatuvei
6 Kieran Foran
7 Shaun Johnson
8 Jesse Bromwich
9 Issac Luke
10 Adam Blair
11 Simon Mannering (c)
12 Kevin Proctor
13 Jason Taumalolo

Interchange
14 Lewis Brown
15 Suaia Matagi
16 Martin Taupau
17 Tohu Harris
18 Bodene Thompson

Coach: Stephen Kearney
Samoa
1 Tim Simona
2 Antonio Winterstein
3 Tim Lafai
4 Joey Leilua
5 Daniel Vidot
6 Ben Roberts
7 Kyle Stanley
8 Isaac Liu
9 Pita Godinet
10 David Fa'alogo (c)
11 Frank Pritchard
12 Leeson Ah Mau
13 Josh McGuire

Interchange
14 Dunamis Lui
15 Jesse Sene-Lefao
16 Sauaso Sue
17 Mose Masoe
18 Dominique Peyroux
19 Penani Manumalealii

Coach: Matt Parish

Australia
1 Greg Inglis
2 Josh Mansour
3 Michael Jennings
4 Dylan Walker
5 Sione Mata'utia
6 Daly Cherry-Evans
7 Cooper Cronk
8 Aaron Woods
9 Cameron Smith (c)
10 Sam Thaiday
11 Beau Scott
12 Greg Bird
13 Corey Parker

Interchange
14 Boyd Cordner
15 Robbie Farah
16 Aidan Guerra
17 Ryan Hoffman
18 Ben Hunt
19 David Klemmer
20 Josh Papalii

Coach: Tim Sheens

England
1 Sam Tomkins
2 Josh Charnley
3 Kallum Watkins
4 Michael Shenton
5 Ryan Hall
6 Gareth Widdop
7 Matty Smith
8 George Burgess
9 Josh Hodgson
10 James Graham (c)
11 Liam Farrell
12 Joel Tomkins
13 Joe Westerman

Interchange
14 Daryl Clark
15 Brett Ferres
16 Tom Burgess
17 Chris Hill

Coach: Steve McNamara

 

[moto748]

Hopefully Lockers will be playing instead of Joe Westerman...

 

[Aucklander]

Tips:

England to upset the Aussies and the Kiwis in a close one over W Samoa.

 

[Aucklander]

Well, what a great game of footy.

Samoa were fantastic and really took it up to the Kiwis. Possibly deserved to win, but the Kiwis were robbed of two fair tries.

Great advertisement for the International game.

 

[moto748]

The Kiwis should have realised that they had their easy game of the three last week, AuckMel!

Terrific game of footy and match of the tournament so far.

First part of your prediction spot-on, anyway...

 

[Seedsfan]

Just turned the game on on TV not sure if it is live, why are Australia not wearing Green and Gold?

 

[Experimental]

Just turned the game on on TV not sure if it is live, why are Australia not wearing Green and Gold?

Historical jerseys - same with England and the refs

 

[The Passenger]

Jesus Christ Australia got away with murder.

That last disallowed try? That is the very definition of a 50/50 call for mine.

The biggest thing I couldn't get was the Australian kicking game. It's must have been an obvious directive from the coaching because Cronk just kept going with the bombs from the halfway line that were by large a complete waste of time. He's too smart of a footballer for that.

NZ still pretty strong favourites for the title.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Poms were robbed. I can't recall **** as bad as that since the 06 GF. It's totally spoilt the competition for me.

 

[Experimental]

Bullshit call on the England try. And I say try, because that's what it was. What a joke.

 

[Aucklander]

England blew it for mine, and yes I agree the last try should've been given.

They had Australia on the ropes at 12-4 and went into their shells too early. Once Australia got a roll on, the writing was on the wall even though the English came back.

This is undoubtably the worst Australian team I've seen in a long time and the English will be kicking themselves.

 

[bigleague]

Great game, poms stopped playing in the second half but they didn't see much ball and couldn't buy a penalty. I would have been happy either way, 50/50 call, Hall's reaction suggested he didn't think he scored and the poms got ready expecting a line drop out.

Hunt sparked Australia and should have probably come on in the halves, his running game would have opened the game up, at hooker he was more restricted. Sheens is a moron and will probably replace him with farah next week.

Been a cracking tournament so far with every game a real contest.

 

[Aucklander]

The pic most people are seeing.

Completely agree, bigleague. Great tourney so far.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

What a terrible crowd today. An international between Aust and England and they cant sell out AAMI park? Seriously? Sports capital of Australia my arse.

International rugby league is the 3rd most important rugby league.

 

[moto748]

England blew it for mine, and yes I agree the last try should've been given.

They had Australia on the ropes at 12-4 and went into their shells too early. Once Australia got a roll on, the writing was on the wall even though the English came back.

This is undoubtably the worst Australian team I've seen in a long time and the English will be kicking themselves.

This. Exactly what I thought.

England went into their shell a bit in the second half and stopped playing. Combined with a desperate, but ultimately successful substitution by Sheens, bringing on Hunt for Thaiday, which worked really well. I don't like Sheens but he deserves credit for that. Meanwhile McBanana kept danger man Clark off the pitch for much of the second half.

On the upside: we officially have a better attack than Australia, and we are not weaker than them in any department. Handling errors and completion rates improved out of sight compared to the Samoa game. For the first time in a while there was no "why have they picked that idiot?" look about the England team. Delighted to see Sarginson in the side, giving the team an even more Wigan-like look, and Smith and O'Loughlin and Tomkins got them running some nice crisp Wigan-style lines in the first half.

On the downside, I think NZ are a better side than the Kangaroos, and am less optimistic about beating them than I was against the Aussies at kick-off.

Looking at the points difference, Australia still aren't guaranteed a final spot; a narrow win over Samoa may not be enough to see them home.

 

[moto748]

And yes, very disappointed with the crowd. That's not much more than an average Storm home game, is it?