Steve McNamara appointed ne England coach.

Steve McNamara was appointed the new England coach yesterday, with former Bradford coach and current Sydney coach Brian Smith appointed as his mentor.

What has been public knowledge for several days, the whole scenario stinks of a copycat New Zealand similarity, which eventually won New Zealand the World Cup. The only difference is that Wayne Bennett is a proven winner, never mind a tactical genius, and was the puppet master in Stephen Kearney's triumph.

The only thing McNamara and Smith have won between them is a raffle.

McNamara was promoted from within after Brian Noble left Bradford to join Wigan in 2006. Since then he has not been able to guide the club to anything near the success Noble did at the West Yorkshire club, having achieved a grand total of zero finals in four years.

Smith on the other hand is a perennial underachiever, and has lost every single major final he has ever guided a team to. That is including English Premierships (pre Super League,) Challenge Cups, and ARL/NRL Grand Finals. He has not won a single thing ash head coach, that that is where the similarity between New Zealand of 2008 and England of 2010 starts and ends.

I don't rate McNamara, and have been saying consistently for a number of years that Bradford will begin to slide down the table. Last year they did. At the same time, McNamara seems to be always hanging onto his club job by the skin of his teeth before an unexpected result goes his way. See Super League round 5, Bradford 22-20 Wigan for a perfect example. Before that game, McNamara was halfway out of the door. After the final hooter went, he had a months grace before scraping a draw against Leeds.

The RFL must have seen the warning signs immediately after the announcement when Bradford fans were happy McNamara was on his way out of their club. Its not often you see a scenario like that in professional sport.

But what's done is done, and I for one am hoping that England do not finish last in this years Four Nations. Last time we went to Australia we badly under performed, and fear Papua New Guinea revenge for that 32-22 win in Townsville will be on the cards. A last place finish will not only erase whatever credibility the national side has recovered over the past 12 months, but it will set off enormous warning bells in the RFL's preperation ahead of the 2013 World Cup.