Help required. Five of us going by car, but one of "the lads" (he's seventy-four) struggles to walk any distance. Is there anywhere within a five to ten minute walk to park and any pubs on that walking route to the ground?
Pretty mixed bag performance wise. There were some poor individual performances but a few stand outs.
Lomax - Solid but unspectacular, didn't really inject himself into the game that much
McGilvray - Aside from his error on own 20m had a really strong game
Gildart - Anonymous for most of the game and struggled defensively but made up for it with the great individual try
Connor - P%%% poor all game. Offered nothing in attack, caught out time & again defensively and some pathetic attempts to niggle the opposition.
Makinson - Aside from the 1 bad offload error had a really good game. Top ball carrier, great take for the 1st try and good run to relieve the pressure near the end.
Williams & Tomkins - Both halves were poor (or were just made to look poor by the Kiwi pair). Only occasionally threatened the line, kicking was generally poor and there was no game control at all from either of them.
Graham - His usual hard working game
Hodgson - Poor game. Offered little in attack, put in some shocking kicks and missed far too many tackles
Burgess - Good game - ran hard & strong and made good yardage all game
Whitehead - Englands best i thought. Worked tirelessley and looked dangerous in attack
Bateman - p%%% poor game. Defensively weak, dropped balls, impersonating a statue for the Kiwi's 2nd try.
O'Loughlin - Another one wo was p%%% poor. Gave away a silly penalty in the lead up to their 1sy try, was then at fault for the try as he failed to cover across
The bench players all made a good impact I thought, Thompson in particular stood out for his strong runs and big hits.
There is no way you are going to find all 3 of those together without paying, but go on to Google maps and search for pubs near Anfield then try this site
https://www.justpark.com/uk/parking/anfield/
Or this site
https://www.yourparkingspace.co.uk/anfield-parking
Parking round Anfield is almost exclusively resident parking, if you move further away then you can get some on street parking but that means a 15 - 20 min walk.
Anfield also sell parking spaces to the over 65s but no idea if they can be bought as a one off for this test
Or
Stanley park Car park might be open for the game - nearest pub then is Arkles 77 Anfield Rd, Liverpool L4 0TJ
Blimey you'd have thought we'd been stuffed with that analysis.
Didn't think Connor was that bad considering he got over the line to force the penalty try. He'll improve as the series goes on.
Thought Williams short kicking game was alright. Tomkins kicking less good.
Certainly didn't think Bateman was that bad.
Connor was lucky, very lucky. A more experienced centre would have exploited his weakness. Time & again he was caught flat footed and turning his shoulder inwards. This just invites the opposition to go on the outside, which they did, but C0nnor then didn't have the lateral pace to go with them leaving his wingman an impossible decision to make as to whether to come in or not.
A good centre fronts up and forces his opposition to make the decision to go in or out and this then makes it easier for his wingman to either move up or slide across with him. The 2nd row inside him then also has to follow suit and close the inside gap.
Centre is a critical defensive position as they are the one who dictate the positioning of the guys inside & outside of them.
Connor got this wrong time after time and was lucky the Kiwi's didn't manage to exploit it. If that was someone like Inglis or Mitchell then we would have got burned.
His passing was slow and inaccurate and his kicking was even worse, then when they decided give Clark a run for 15 mins they left him on and he was going in first receiver slowing everything down from there, McShane must feel very unlucky not to be in the squad, would have much rather seen him start then bring Clark on in the absence of Roby.
ive seen hodgson have some great games for canberra running the game kicking 40-20s but every time hes played for england hes looked hopeless,think england will have to step up a notch to win next saturday
McShane over Hodgson for me but think Clark should start on saturday.
Learned comment from The Don
Well despite such an awful performance he scored a "try" and he wasn't playing Inglis of Mitchell so that's not really relevant. He's not really a specialist centre, probably more of a stand off.
I've certainly seen Hodgson have better games.
I think both sides have improvement in them, especially England who haven't had the benefit of playing Australia already. I can't see Bennett making wholesale changes unless it's due to injury. Who comes in for O'Loughlin if he's out?
Many thanks again. Stanley Park Car Park and then into Arkles looks good, I'm not driving Sorry to be a pain (await comments) Is it better from the East Lancs to go down Queens drive to Utting Ave and then right onto Priory Road or down Walton Lane to Everton and left onto Priory Road?
I've had a look on Google Maps, can you then walk to the bottom corner of the car park and come out close to Arkles?
Connor didn't score, he failed to ground the ball, England were awarded a very fortunate 'Penalty Try' for a piece of foul play in the in-goal area. Even if DWT hadn't connected with his knees first Connor still wouldn't have grounded the ball as it was 2 other Kiwi players who held him up with great defence.
I just dont get all this fanwing over Connor ?
His occasional pieces of brilliance are invariable overshadowed by games where he's totally anonymous or has complete brain farts.
Where was he when Hull were really struggling this year - nowhere to be seen most of the time !
I sometimes drive into work Rogues down the Lancs and I don't work too far from L4. I would go down to Everton as Queens Drive is really busy. You'll know you're right as Queens Drive goes across the Lancs at Walton (past Walton Leisure centre on the opposite side of the Lancs).
There is a car park near the Arkles I think but not sure. I'm in the Kop (so I'll have to walk it down Townsend Road or Arkles Lane after football at Clubmoor Rec). It's a bit mad around there, all the streets come out at different places but you're never too far from where you need to be.
This is it. He is usually excellent for Canberra week in week out, as you say running the game and usually kicks very well. For whatever reason he has never been able to repeat this for England. One thing that annoys me with Hodgson is that he never ever passes the ball straight off the floor. He will either pick it up first and pass or pick up take a few steps then pass.
It was the VR who awarded the penalty try for foul play in the in-goal area so my assessment of it matches theirs. If Connor had grounded the ball then it would have been an '8 point try' but he didn't, hence why there was only 1 kick attempt in front of the sticks not 2.
There's plenty of fawning over Connor on this board with "wish he played for Saints" posts. He's a poor man's Leon Pryce with half the natural skill and pace he had.
Ah the good old stats defence - the ones that dont record all the times the player is left hanging on for dear life and needs othes to come in & complete the tackle for them (as Beteman was frequently in that game), that dont record the poor decision making where they get nowhere near the tackle in the 1st place (such as Batemans p%%% poor effort for the Kiwi's try where Nikorima left him standing like a statue). Mistakes like that never get recorded even though its there for all to see who was at fault.