shrewsbury roughyed

Wot! No Aussies? Come on England!

I’m going. Bought my ticket in a state of euphoria after the quarter final. Felt numb and was about to throw my toys out of the pram after the semi but hey- how many rl World Cup finals will I get the chance to see? And how many times as an Oldham fan will I go up Old Trafford? And the England RL women might even be there. I’m swallowing my pride and making a day of it. Come on Samoa!!!

February? I can't flippin wait until February.

It was strange. As was keeping McIlorum on for so long and giving Mcmeeken such a short stint when he was beginning to create problems. Burgess was blasting holes like no other. Very odd decision. Maybe there are things we’re not aware of

McIlorum aside I don’t think the forwards were particularly bad. Of course it was tougher than the previous games. Cooper and briefly Mckeechan offered something from the bench. Knowles and Thompson were pretty anonymous. What lost is the game were ineffective ends of sets from a lack of calmness and communication where it mattered, plus one interception, one dropped ball, two defensive misreads and a 6 again and penalty. We had enough and should have been good enough to win- we just blew it. I’m still numb tbh

Whitehead was outstanding. Makinson same. Can’t criticise Hill or Burgess. Basically came down to bad mistakes in defence and not enough cutting edge up front. Good interview with Wane. I do rate the guy. The inexperience of Welsby showed and lack of pace from Micky McIlorum suggested that Ackers on the bench might have made a difference. Radley one bad mistake but otherwise excellent and made Morgan Knowles look poor. A naive performance but a great deal of spirit to get it back to 26 all. Devastated really

Isolated defenders. Going to have to find a way to win this.

They probably agree with Wane’s sentiments

The mascots have been amazing all through the tournament. Really look as though they’re enjoying the occasion

Possibly some of them still queuing to get out of the Elland Road car parks

45000 expected according to the bbc website

Radley is a character, as well as a class player. Said the word ‘hard’ about 15 times in that interview. Better hard than clunky. Love it

Washing machine? Think someone needs to hang J Wilkin out to dry for s bit

Glad we’re keeping a sense of perspective here. Should we transport the criminal to Australia then? Oh... hang on...

Even better than the Roughyeds beating Hunslet in the playoffs last season? Steady on, lad.

Crowd not happy

Come on- extra time. Come on.

Aussies got a stranglehold on this game now.

Kiwis only two interchanges left. Aussies a good few more.

Klein got that right- but it was a heck of a leap by Forlan

Offside

So- on current performance from that half, if - IF- England beat Samoa, who would you prefer to face in the final? (No-Scotland don’t count.)

Good luck to the person editing the highlights for half time. What do you leave out?

Indescribable that. Never seen Tedesco that knackered. To think that a whole load of football players get more money per week than these guys do in a year. Just doesn’t make any sense

The quality of this game is beyond belief