Groundhog Day’s our wake-up call
Papua New Guinea 28 Great Britain
10
IT’S starting to feel like Groundhog Day as I’m talking again about the same errors happening and the same disappointing result.
In the first half we were almost in cruise control and were doing everything that we had talked about.
We knew they had some unbelievable players and we were expecting it to be tough as they had only narrowly lost to Fiji.
But it is not good enough how we let this game get away from us. In the first half we showed what we can do but then we gave them a step up and they capitalised.
It’s really hard to take. It actually sucks because I always hate losing, and as a competitor who is so proud to wear this Great Britain jersey it’s not a very nice feeling.
We didn’t have a midseason Test and the build-up was disrupted, but there are no excuses.
We are all professional athletes and have a lot of international games and experience between us.
The bottom line is we weren’t good enough collectively or individually and the other teams on this tour were better than us.
I’m fully aware there are certain parts of my game that I need to work on and I know what they are and I will continue to work hard on them.
But there are some things I am happy with on this tour. I think I’ve proved to myself that defensively I am up to it.
Defense is the biggest challenge as a half back, and I’m very happy with how I’ve defended.
I’ve also been happy with the things I’ve done with the ball. I’ve shown glimpses in every game.
I am pretty pleased that I have stood up to some big name players and that gives me conf confidence.
But I’d trade h having a good individual game any day if it meant we w won as a team. Now we’ve got t to look forward and hopefully we’ll get an England Test next year.
And all the boys will continue to try and play well for their clubs.
Hopefully we can put it all together next year and then right some wrongs against Australia on our own patch.
Lions coach Wayne Bennett (above) wants to coach England through to the 2021 World Cup. He said: “I do not think anyone can say I haven’t got the appetite.”