The Flaw Nations
THE credibility of international rugby league is under question with claims the current Four Nations tournament should be scrapped to only include Australia and New Zealand next year.
The Kangaroos face England tonight at Melbourne's AAMI Park in what is expected to be another lopsided victory for the home team.
The injury-ravaged Poms are without a win in two matches on tour and are considered next to no chance of beating the Aussies tonight.
Australia will start short-priced $1.10 favourites to down the Old Enemy.
An Australian victory will also ensure that next week's Eden Park double-header in New Zealand, where Australia are scheduled to clash with the Kiwis, will be nothing more than dead-rubbers.
Australia and the Kiwis are expected to clash seven days later in the Four Nations final at Suncorp Stadium on November 13.
Yesterday, Australia's Cooper Cronk and Brett Morris defended both England and the tournament. But former Test hooker Ben Elias hit out at the standard of the tournament, claiming the English side were no different to Papua New Guinea in that they were simply making up the numbers.
"I really don't know too much about this Four Nations, but am I different to anyone else?" Elias said.
"It's Four Nations which includes Papua New Guinea and who else? England.
"Why don't we just call it the Bledisloe Cup or some other concept instead of Four Nations?
"Call it the Two Nations, then we could try to incorporate and benefit from the rivalry between Australia and New Zealand because they're the only two teams who are competitive. Twelve years ago they [England] came up with the Super League concept and a promise to compete with the world, and here we are in 2010 and Australia are $1.10 to beat them.
"Something has seriously gone wrong. I'm all for positives for the game, but right now I'm dumbfounded.
"Watching Australia beat PNG last week was like watching the big bully beat the little kid in the schoolyard.
"How is that a good thing?"
England have talked up a good fight ahead of tonight's clash, but the reality is if Australia click they will win by 40 points, as former Kangaroos halfback Greg Alexander suggested last week.
Cronk claimed criticism of the English was unfair, but this is something you would expect from a player who doesn't want to disrespect an opponent or give them extra motivation.
"They've had a couple of critics get stuck into them this week and the coaches made some changes which normally gets a team fired up," Cronk said. "To be honest, I tend to disagree [with the criticism].
"It's one game into a Four Nations campaign. I know the format that it is, you need to start really well to make sure you're there in the final.
"They're a talented side. The amount of players they've got, just watching what they can do in the Super League, is up there with the NRL.
"I know they've had a lot of criticism in terms of recent results against Australia, but you look at the two Pommies [Sam Burgess and Gareth Ellis] who came out here - they've basically dominated.
"From a player's point of view, we've got the utmost respect for what they're capable of doing on their day.
"And it's hard because there's no real good format when you've only got four teams involved."
Morris supported Cronk's defence of the England outfit by adding that he didn't think the $1.10 price being offered properly reflected how tight a game it would be.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/the-flaw-nations/story-e6frexnr-1225945592607
