Who would be in your 17? There's quite a few uncertainties after this year after poor seasons from ourselves and good seasons from the likes of hull and wire. Reigning mos vs close challenger to the dally m award for the 9 shirt. Tomkins Manfredi and SO'L are probably out. Ben Currie out, Jack Reed forced into retirement to name a few injuries.

Whats going on with the ticket site for the 4Nations? It's been down for the last 3 days.

Assuming Tomkins is out:

Lomax
McGilvery
Watkins
Cudjoe
Hall
Brown
Gale
Graham
Hoodgson
Burgess
Batemen
Whitehead
Burgess

Clark
Hill
Tom Bugess/Taylor/Cooper
Greenwood / McMeekan

Its so disappointing because this year both Aus and NZ are having something of a changing of the guard, their squads are squads you would think you could get at.

And then we see what we have available, the players who are out and the lack of depth at key positions.

Our best backline players are injured or woefully out of form and those who should be demanding those shirts can only strive for mediocrity. Our Halves are a choice between players who simply havent been tested at the top club level never mind international level or players who have come up short at international level.

Id love to see us win it and looking at the NZ and Australia squads id think it was our best chance for a while, but unless we our backline can jump from being in awful form to their best and we can find a couple of halves with English grandmothers i fear we will be embarrassed.

I was pretty confident at the start of the year but for the reasons you have highlighted very much less so now.

I have learned never to get my hopes up too much regards the international scene anyway these days as all i have ever known is them being crushed and sometimes in brutal fashion. Will be interesting to see what Bennett adds to the setup, especially regards the psyche of the players. Still looking forward to it, got my tickets for the Anfield final in the Kop, hopefully we will be there.

I'd have

Shaul
Mcgilvery
Watkins
Bateman (it probably will even though I don't think he is a centre at all)
Hall
Widdop
Williams
Hill
Hodgson
Graham
Farrell
Whitehead
S.Burgess

Subs
Clark
T.Burgess
Cooper
Ferres

Ratchford,Lomax, Gale,Taylor ,Greenwood,G.Burgess,Westerman

Don't care, we are woefully lacking strength in depth over a number of positions, it will be aus v nz final with some to spare, I fear international RL will be a thing of the past soon with only two real sides at the highest level.


And anyone who thinks Lomax is an international player wants there head looking at.

Full back will be hardaker or shaul, halfbacks gale and Williams there at of the Backs and forwards pick them selves.

Would love to see Kevin Brown get a go. When fit he's a terrific player, but realistically Williams will play and as a consequence I think Smith will be alongside him with Widdop at FB (an uneducated guess).

1. Widdop
2. McGilvary
3. Watkins
4. Atkins
5. Hall
6. Williams
7. Gale
8. Graham
9. Hodgson
10. Hill
11. Bateman
12. Whitehead
13. Burgess, S

14. Clark
15. Burgess
16. Cooper
17. Ferres

18. Burgess
19. Taylor
20. Shaul
21. Westerman
22. Greenwood
23. Cudjoe
24. Farrell

Widdop at full back could be a good shout, he certainly shouldn't in the halves IMO.
Williams is a player that seems to be getting a lot of praise, but I'm not convinced, he operates in the left channel, only seems to touch the ball when Wigan get within 20 yards of the line. He also never seems to kick or pass the ball more than 10 metres.

Hardaker tweeted this the other day so looks like he's involved

"Good first day back training with @England_RL great to see the boys.. Certainly blew some cob webs off."

Shaul
McGillvary
Watkins
Turner (I've been impressed with him this year at Saints)
Hall
Williams
Gale
Hill
Hodgson
Graham
Whitehead
Ferres
S Burgess

Clark
Bateman
T Burgess
Walmsley

I think he will be in the squad. The more i think about it, the more Hardaker to centre makes sense. The thought of Cudjoe or Atkins trying to keep Inglis quiet is enough to keep you awake at night and Hardaker is a very capable defender which will be priority when facing off against Inglis.

What have Watkins and Hall done this season to warrant international selection?

who would you say we should pick over these two?

Either of the Morris Twins (or both) and/or Joe Burgess.

As we know we aren't blessed with centre options. As for Hall he is a bit fortunate that Manfredi is injured and Burgess made an ill advised move to the NRL. With Burgess back at Wigan next year and if Manfredi can bounce back ok from his serious injury then Hall will have a job on to be a starter for the World Cup though. He is a rarity though in that he is a back who has shown up well at International level for England.

These are the first 10 players announced in the train on squad, NRL players and those involved in playoffs yet to be included.

Luke Gale (Castleford Tigers)
Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield Giants)
Leroy Cudjoe (Huddersfield Giants)
Kallum Watkins (Leeds Rhinos)
Ryan Hall (Leeds Rhinos)
Brett Ferres (Leeds Rhinos)
Stevie Ward (Leeds Rhinos)
Tom Briscoe (Leeds Rhinos)
Zak Hardaker (Leeds Rhinos)
Kevin Brown (Widnes Vikings)

Briscoe quite fortunate to be in particularly. Whilst Ward has been injured most of the year and shouldn't be involved because it's way too early in his comeback to be playing the Aussies and Kiwis it's good to see him included as he'll definitely be a future contender to play.

with Currie ruled out it makes sense to include the other back rower in Ward who is likely to be a cornerstone of the England pack in future years in the train on squad, can't see him making the final squad though and nor should he.

has to be said McGillvary has also had less than a stellar year in a team also struggling so i feel its a bit unfair to single out Hall. I still feel both of them are our best options still though. Manfredi and Burgess should make it interesting leading into the WC.

What has anyone else done to warrant selection over them, we really don't have much in depth and both players at 80% are still better than everyone else.

Morris twins are Australian and have many test caps, do we really want to go down this route, and neither of them are as good as Watkins and hall, Burgess one season wonder against players who have had one bad season don't think so.

When England meet Australia on 5th November, it'll be exactly 10 years and 1 day since the previous win again against them, a 23-12 victory as GB in Sydney in 2006.

That is a record length of time which has elapsed since beating them.

Therefore, I don't care what it takes to finally get a win and if that means Bennett giving as many SL players as possible a huge swerve in selection policy, then so be it. Most of the SL based players listed in this thread are weaknesses at international level. They are not up to the task, therefore I'd go with a team approaching the following line-up crammed with as many qualifying NRL personnel as possible...

I'm even prepared to nominate Hardaker for a bench role in this instance!

1. Gareth Widdop
2. Brett Morris
3. *** It's a shame Jack Reed had to retire ***
4. Josh Morris
5. Joe Burgess
6. Blake Austin
7. Trent Hodkinson
8. Chris Hill
9. Josh Hodgson
10. James Graham
11. Chris McQueen
12. Elliot Whitehead
13. Sam Burgess

14. George Burgess
15. Chris Heighington
16. Mike Cooper
17. Zak Hardaker

Yes, we need to go down this route in order to have any chance of winning.


My apologies.
I thought you were being serious.

Heighington, Mcqueen and hodkinson



i knew that would be your response which is why i never replied to the Morris brothers that you came back with. Look, im all for including players from the NRL willing to 100% play for us who would improve our team, have some sort of link to being English and haven't got a sack full of Australia caps already. we are all fed up of being beaten by the Aussies but winning with a team like that ( i don't think we would BTW it is no better than what we will likely field in november) wouldn't sit well with me at all.

i know...i shouldn't have bitten

Haven't the Morris twins already been ruled out of switching? www.triplem.com.au/sydney/sport/ ... s-england/

Haven't the Morris twins already been ruled out of switching? www.triplem.com.au/sydney/sport/ ... s-england/