Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:Of course, in the interests of a balanced assessment, you have to look at both sides and provide relative comparisons.
Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:What was England's win ratio for the years prior to Steve McNamara?
In the 5 years prior to McNamara taking over (2006 - 2010), England/GB played 12 games against Australia & NZ, winning 5 & Losing 7 so a better win ratio over the same amount of games
Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:Have the margins of defeat got smaller or larger?
Does it matter...a loss is a loss regardless of whether it is by 1 or 100
Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:England didn't have any injuries then?
As far as established England players go, Jack Reed, George Burgess & Sam Tomkins (who was included in the squad whilst injured until March - a bad coaching decision in itself) are the only players missing through injury...not really the same as missing the captain, both half backs, record try scorer, main prop forward (and a couple of other established internationals such as Leuluai, Taumalolo)
Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:Except it mattered last Saturday, and we won.
It didnt really matter in comparison to a Four Nations/World Cup competition win though...we won the same trophy back in 2007 and since then NZ have gone on to win a World Cup & 4 Nations and we havent got anywhere near them or Australia since. Yes it is nice to win a series, but in the bigger picture it doesnt rank with the other tournaments we play in
