England fightback too late against Australia.

England 16-26 Australia
It wasn't pretty was it?

To summarise the first half from and England perspective, it was nothing short of abysmal. Poor defence, poor organisation and a one dimensional attack thanks to a lack of organisation from both Danny McGuire and Sam Thomkins.

Greg Inglis consistently ran through the England right wing like a knife through butter. Tim Sheens used the obvious tactic and targeted Tom Briscoe on that right hand side, taking advantage of Briscoe's lack of experience. They did it by streaching the England defence, and it looked like they were able to do it on any area of the pitch.

Billy Slater scored what I would consider the try of the game. From a play the ball on the Australian right side,Cameron Smith passed what the players call an 'X ball' (where the recieving player runs behind an option runner, but its timed so to not obstruct the defence) to Thurston, who did the same to Lockyer, who did the same to Slater to score in the other corner.

Once the floodgates opened early on, it looked like Australia would repeat their 52-4 mauling of England in Melbourne last year. Thankfully, Australia decided not to to enflict their wrath and the second half reflected that.

The million pound question has to be, did Australia take their foot off the gas or did England actually play some decent rugby in the second half?

The second half allowed England to throw the ball around a bit more. They were able to get into their opponents half, which Australia prevented in the first half. Eorl Crabtree put his hand up and showed he is a good prop after all, out playing both Adrian Morley and the out of position Jamie Peacock.

Sam Burgess, the worst England forward on the pitch in the first half, improved his work rate and ultimatly scored his try before he deserved it. But it lifted the spirits of both the England players and the fans.

Even Thomkins showed a spark of cretivity and doubled a one dimenstional attack with the help of Kevin Sinfield, and Kyle Eastmond later in the game. Although he didn't have the perfect game. His execution was too slow against the fast paced Australian defence, which meant most of the time he was forced to take the tackle which lost momentum for the English side.

As for McGuire, it was ironic when he was finally taken off that so many fans jeered the Leeds stand off. He didn't show any enthusiasm and looked like he didn't know what he was doing most of the time.

So where now for England?

I firmly believe if the second English side turn up to Huddersfield to face New Zealand on next week. If England can throw the ball around a bit and the halfs are given the space to move around, then England can defeat New Zealand and secure their place in the final at Leeds.

The New Zealand side, whilst good, are very young and may suffer from jet lag and the amount of travelling they will have to face. They looked bery dodgey in the first half against France and looked very exposed.

Its do or die for both England and Tony Smith.