Are you sure England is better then Samoa?

[The Rocket]

On 12/08/2022 at 23:05, SydneyRoosters said:

Fair enough.

Tapine’s still better though in my opinion 

Haas can`t seem to help but make metres it seems, he`s just so powerful and mobile, but he never or very, very rarely seems to off-load or even try to. I wonder if Haas is completely happy at the Broncos and is only serving time now, doing his bit but no more, and his lack at attempted off-loading is a symptom of that.

Tapine is a special, I saw him at Indigenous round and he was on-fire, three try assists and numerous tackle-breaks I think I recall. He shows week-in week-out that he is always looking to promote the football unlike Haas. Can`t wait to see him playing for N.Z.

[StandOffHalf]

2 hours ago, Mojo said:

Starting lino and milford at the same time will create alot of hole on the defensive end. I prefer Milford over Lino easily. He has experience and he'll work with a much better squad than he did with the knights team

Lino has the advantage of playing in England and he's been going very well for Wakefield. I think it's a toss-up between those two, with the familiarity with English conditions being in Lino's favour. I think he's a better player now than when he was coming through in the NRL.

But yeah, I'd slot the Milf into the team somewhere as well.

[Cheadle Leyther]

The presenters on NRL 360 have confirmed these players are now available to Samoa for the England game:-

1. Sualli (Roosters), 2.To’o (Panthers), 3. Crichton (Roosters),4.Tago (Panthers), 5. May (Panthers), 6. Luai (Panthers), 7. Milford (Panthers),8. Papalili (Eels), 9.Brown (Wests),10.Paulo (Eels), 11.Su’A (Dragons), 12. Leilua (Cowboys), 13. A’loai (Manly). Subs: 14. Tabuai-Fidow (Bulldogs), 15. Molo (Dragons), 16. Faitala-Mariner (Bulldogs). 
Plus they are trying to get Superstar Payne Haas on board.

Can we beat this team in the opening match? I think not!!! This would mean 2nd place and a quarter final against 1st in Group D which should be Tonga, who are even stronger than Samoa!!

 

 

 

[SydneyRoosters]

42 minutes ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

The presenters on NRL 360 have confirmed these players are now available to Samoa for the England game:-

1. Sualli (Roosters), 2.To’o (Panthers), 3. Crichton (Roosters),4.Tago (Panthers), 5. May (Panthers), 6. Luai (Panthers), 7. Milford (Panthers),8. Papalili (Eels), 9.Brown (Wests),10.Paulo (Eels), 11.Su’A (Dragons), 12. Leilua (Cowboys), 13. A’loai (Manly). Subs: 14. Tabuai-Fidow (Bulldogs), 15. Molo (Dragons), 16. Faitala-Mariner (Bulldogs). 
Plus they are trying to get Superstar Payne Haas on board.

Can we beat this team in the opening match? I think not!!! This would mean 2nd place and a quarter final against 1st in Group D which should be Tonga, who are even stronger than Samoa!!

 

 

 

This Samoan Team is filled with inconsistencies, it’s not a complete squad and there are many weaknesses. England should win pretty comfortably I think. I wouldn’t be suprised at all if Samoa come close though it should be a high scoring entertaining game.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

52 minutes ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

The presenters on NRL 360 have confirmed these players are now available to Samoa for the England game:-

1. Sualli (Roosters), 2.To’o (Panthers), 3. Crichton (Roosters),4.Tago (Panthers), 5. May (Panthers), 6. Luai (Panthers), 7. Milford (Panthers),8. Papalili (Eels), 9.Brown (Wests),10.Paulo (Eels), 11.Su’A (Dragons), 12. Leilua (Cowboys), 13. A’loai (Manly). Subs: 14. Tabuai-Fidow (Bulldogs), 15. Molo (Dragons), 16. Faitala-Mariner (Bulldogs). 
Plus they are trying to get Superstar Payne Haas on board.

Can we beat this team in the opening match? I think not!!! This would mean 2nd place and a quarter final against 1st in Group D which should be Tonga, who are even stronger than Samoa!!

 

 

 

This Samoa squad is more stacked than Tonga now in my opinion. Tonga’s spine is poor, especially compared to this Samoa spine. Outside backs are better too imo.

Big issue Samoa will have is that they’ve hardly played together (apart from the panthers bunch) and Parish has been a shambolic and even hated leader previously yet, bafflingly, is still there. They need to overcome those issues and they have a real chance to go deep, maybe even win it.

[Mr Frisky]

7 hours ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

The presenters on NRL 360 have confirmed these players are now available to Samoa for the England game:-

1. Sualli (Roosters), 2.To’o (Panthers), 3. Crichton (Roosters),4.Tago (Panthers), 5. May (Panthers), 6. Luai (Panthers), 7. Milford (Panthers),8. Papalili (Eels), 9.Brown (Wests),10.Paulo (Eels), 11.Su’A (Dragons), 12. Leilua (Cowboys), 13. A’loai (Manly). Subs: 14. Tabuai-Fidow (Bulldogs), 15. Molo (Dragons), 16. Faitala-Mariner (Bulldogs). 
Plus they are trying to get Superstar Payne Haas on board.

Can we beat this team in the opening match? I think not!!! This would mean 2nd place and a quarter final against 1st in Group D which should be Tonga, who are even stronger than Samoa!!

 

 

 

Don't worry mate, Englands strength in depth, organisational skills and home advantage will see us home by a couple of scores after a high scoring and hopefully entertaining first half.

[AB90]

Sportsbet in Aus have released the first odds for the England v Samoa game with England currently slight favourites:

England ($1.77) vs Samoa ($2.05)

A 50/50 to open the WC with the home team involved is such a great way to kick off the competition.

[Mattrhino]

To the original question. I have no idea not see either play a proper test in ages.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

10 hours ago, SydneyRoosters said:

This Samoan Team is filled with inconsistencies, it’s not a complete squad and there are many weaknesses. England should win pretty comfortably I think. I wouldn’t be suprised at all if Samoa come close though it should be a high scoring entertaining game.

Agreed....people getting carried away with some high profile NRL names forget we are at home conditions, big partisan crowd and we have a very good team ourselves ...all of the players in the England starting 17 and would make it in the NRL if they chose to play there 

I think we win by 2 scores 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Either way my 50-50 decision to get up there for the game with wife and kids has been made up.....don't like the idea of giving the corrupt people who run the game any more money than I have to 

[SydneyRoosters]

11 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Agreed....people getting carried away with some high profile NRL names forget we are at home conditions, big partisan crowd and we have a very good team ourselves ...all of the players in the England starting 17 and wouldn't make it in the NRL if they chose to play there 

I think we win by 2 scores 

Agreed I believe the harsh English conditions and animated Crowd will have a much larger affect than moth southern nations expect. I can actually see a world we’re wales make it out of there group mostly based on the weather.

[Pulga]

14 hours ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

The presenters on NRL 360 have confirmed these players are now available to Samoa for the England game:-

1. Sualli (Roosters), 2.To’o (Panthers), 3. Crichton (Roosters),4.Tago (Panthers), 5. May (Panthers), 6. Luai (Panthers), 7. Milford (Panthers),8. Papalili (Eels), 9.Brown (Wests),10.Paulo (Eels), 11.Su’A (Dragons), 12. Leilua (Cowboys), 13. A’loai (Manly). Subs: 14. Tabuai-Fidow (Bulldogs), 15. Molo (Dragons), 16. Faitala-Mariner (Bulldogs). 
Plus they are trying to get Superstar Payne Haas on board.

Can we beat this team in the opening match? I think not!!! This would mean 2nd place and a quarter final against 1st in Group D which should be Tonga, who are even stronger than Samoa!!

 

 

 

Milford is at the Knights (now technically the Dolphins?), Papali'i is at Raiders and HTF is at the Cowboys.

Samoa is definitely stronger than Tonga at this stage.

[Pulga]

3 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Either way my 50-50 decision to get up there for the game with wife and kids has been made up.....don't like the idea of giving the corrupt people who run the game any more money than I have to 

Which corrupt people?

[bobbruce]

1 minute ago, Pulga said:

Which corrupt people?

He’s sulking. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

20 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Which corrupt people?i

I believe Knowles is playing because someone/people running RL have had a word. 

This is a type of corruption. Disrupting a supposedly fair process for their own ends

I no longer want to financially support a tournament that involves these people doing these things 

[Cheadle Leyther]

13 hours ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

This Samoa squad is more stacked than Tonga now in my opinion. Tonga’s spine is poor, especially compared to this Samoa spine. Outside backs are better too imo.

Big issue Samoa will have is that they’ve hardly played together (apart from the panthers bunch) and Parish has been a shambolic and even hated leader previously yet, bafflingly, is still there. They need to overcome those issues and they have a real chance to go deep, maybe even win it.

We  (England) have hardly played together either, and look at the players that are starring in the Eels, Panthers, Roosters and Cowboys teams that qualified for the play offs, I.e. Sualli,Crichton,To’o, Tago, Luai, Papali, May and Paulo. That’s 8 of the starting line up!!

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

22 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

He’s sulking.

I consider it a type of protest rather than sulking 

I am far from alone on this by the way 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

45 minutes ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

We  (England) have hardly played together either, and look at the players that are starring in the Eels, Panthers, Roosters and Cowboys teams that qualified for the play offs, I.e. Sualli,Crichton,To’o, Tago, Luai, Papali, May and Paulo. That’s 8 of the starting line up!!

yes, so you agree that Samoa are a real threat, not just to England but the whole competition. Disagree that the England team have hardly played together though. We have a lot of the same faces in our squad that we've had over the past few years. We're hardly integrating a ton of fresh new young players into the team.

[Agbrigg]

When was the last time Bateman had a good game, so far back I can't remember. However looking at the antics of getting him available tells you ever so much. If England are so desperate to get an out of form player available then to me it indicates they are in serious trouble. However I quite honestly don't care anymore

[graveyard johnny]

37 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:

When was the last time Bateman had a good game, so far back I can't remember. However looking at the antics of getting him available tells you ever so much. If England are so desperate to get an out of form player available then to me it indicates they are in serious trouble. However I quite honestly don't care anymore

yep- that's a poor stunt by any standards

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 hours ago, Agbrigg said:

When was the last time Bateman had a good game, so far back I can't remember. However looking at the antics of getting him available tells you ever so much. If England are so desperate to get an out of form player available then to me it indicates they are in serious trouble. However I quite honestly don't care anymore

Agree on Bateman 

50% with you on not caring about England now....and that's from someone who was really looking forward to the WC

[Pulga]

10 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I believe Knowles is playing because someone/people running RL have had a word. 

This is a type of corruption. Disrupting a supposedly fair process for their own ends

I no longer want to financially support a tournament that involves these people doing these things 

So a completely different set of people to the ones running the RLWC?

[UTK]

16 hours ago, Pulga said:

Milford is at the Knights (now technically the Dolphins?), Papali'i is at Raiders and HTF is at the Cowboys.

Samoa is definitely stronger than Tonga at this stage.

I don't think Samoa being stronger than Tonga is very accurate, Junior Paulo is the only Samoan forward who would have a sniff at making Tonga's pack if eligible, even though Staggs is out their outside backs are all stars in their own right and would definitely hold their own. 

1. Tolu Koula/Will Hopoate
2. Daniel Tupou
3. Siosifa Talakai
4. Will Penisini/
5. Sione Katoa
6. Junior Amone
7. Tui Lolohea
8. Addin Fonua-Blake
9. Siliva Havili
10. Sio Siua Taukeiaho 
11. Haumole Olakau'atu
12. Keaon Koloamatangi
13. Jason Taumalolo
14. Soni Luke
15. Tevita Pangai Jnr/Mo Fotuaika
16. Joe Ofahengaue/Junior Tatola
17. David Fifita/Felise Kaufusi

[Dave T]

4 hours ago, Pulga said:

So a completely different set of people to the ones running the RLWC?

Not strictly.  Rimmer is heavily involved in both. 

But,  we shouldn't cut off our nose to spite our face.  We should make our feelings known and try and drive change where we can as fans. 

[Mojo]

30 minutes ago, UTK said:

I don't think Samoa being stronger than Tonga is very accurate, Junior Paulo is the only Samoan forward who would have a sniff at making Tonga's pack if eligible, even though Staggs is out their outside backs are all stars in their own right and would definitely hold their own. 

1. Tolu Koula/Will Hopoate
2. Daniel Tupou
3. Siosifa Talakai
4. Will Penisini/
5. Sione Katoa
6. Junior Amone
7. Tui Lolohea
8. Addin Fonua-Blake
9. Siliva Havili
10. Sio Siua Taukeiaho 
11. Haumole Olakau'atu
12. Keaon Koloamatangi
13. Jason Taumalolo
14. Soni Luke
15. Tevita Pangai Jnr/Mo Fotuaika
16. Joe Ofahengaue/Junior Tatola
17. David Fifita/Felise Kaufusi

They're both pretty even tbh. Tonga definitely has the forwards but it may come down to the spine. Where Samoa has a big advantage. Tonga will definitely be the favourites out of the two tbh.

Samoan line up

1 Joseph Suaali'i

2 Brian To'o

3 Stephen Crichton

4 Izack Tago

5 Murray Taulagi/ Tylan May

6 Jarome Luai

7 Anthony Milford

8 Junior Paulo

9 Danny Levi

10 Josh Papali'i

11 Luciano Leilua

12 Jayd'n Sua

13 Jeremiah Nanai

 

14 Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow

15 Royce Hunt

16 Marty Taupau

17 Josh Aloiai