there is a fine line. noble was a tw*t and he was the same at wigan. he would only pick youngsters if he had to.
burrow was outstanding on saturday and has never let england(or GB) down.
i honestly am amazed he wasn't in the squad.
i also think bridge and sykes are a bloody joke selection

Train on squad yes team no

Some people only ever moan.
After the showing at last years WC Tony Smith said he is going to do something different and give others a chance and he is doing it but dont let facts get in the way of a good moan.

So sykes deserve's to stay in the squad but burrow doesn't?????????


That's not trying something different that's rewarding a whinging tw#t after being sh#8e!!
It's good to see players like tompkins,myler and eastmond within the squad but at the expense of burrow is wrong imo.

Sykes kicks goal and can play about 4 positions. Burrow can only play scrum half and Smith obviously knows who his scrum half is.

Richie Myler is the England number 7 until someone removes him from the position.

Personally I'd go with McGuire and Myler at 6 and 7 with Eastmond on the bench with 3 props.

I probably haven't seen enough of Tomkins to judge, although he is a talented player in his position, but so far as Eastmond is concerned just look to the Grand Final. He's 20 years old, he has never played in a first grade final before, he was playing at centre against a team with a good defence, yet he managed to score one try, almost score another and kick all his goals. He has pace, agility, a good rugby brain, his passes can be sublime (although sometimes he gets a bit too adventurous) and he is superb at spotting a gap and going for it. He has played scrum half, centre and fullback. The only thing he has not yet shown is an ability to organise and lead the pack around the park. That may come in time or it may simply not be part of his skill set. However, if ever there is a young player ready to face the Aussies, it's Eastmond. We need to start somewhere with our young players and it is possible that Smith is looking to the Four Nations as a training ground for the world cup. I'm not expecting us to win or even to score many points. But I would love to see how our young players hold up in that situation. There is no better test of talent and experience for a young player than facing the best in the world, IMO.

But maybe that's just me getting all carried away.

I agree. Eastmond has to be in there. He's the one player capable of scaring the Aussies. He's a rough diamond at the moment, but he's a special talent in the Jason Robinson mould, and we'd be crazy to hold him back IMO.

is this the same myler who has been injured, dropped or anonymous since July! What happend to picking form players?

I would like to see mcguire and tomkins in the halves.

the Aussies will send traffic in attack and defence down his channel all game! inglis and hodges will be p!ssing themselves at the thought of running at him! I look forward to seeing if eastmond is up to it, if inglis uses that big fend on eastmond he will end up in row 20!

The Aussies will do this, the Aussies will do that. It's all I ever bloody hear. That's half the problem, we're so worried about what they'll do to us that we don't offer them any problems whatsoever.

They'll put points on us whatever team we put out, so it's about time we gave them something to worry about. Jarryd Hayne played for NSW and Australia at 19. Granted, he's better than Eastmond, but they didn't worry, they just threw him in.

He can't tackle in any of them and he's not very good in any of them.

If his is the standard then the rest of the squad can all play in 13 positions.

TBH the 8itching about the squad pi55es me off. I support all of the players who have been picked and hope they do well and silence the critics. But FFS Paul Sykes is simply not good enough.

The likes of Inglis and those before him never had any trouble running at Newlove, Connolly, Senior, Gleeson or any of the other top SL players. Eastmond hasn't yet been beaten at centre that I can remember, there are certainly no moments where he was beaten one on one that spring to mind. Look what an ageing Gidley did to Senior in the GF, it's about space. If we gift them the room they'd beat anyone. If we deny them the space and force them through the middle we can make it more difficult for them.

Diskin's solid but I'm glad he's not in the squad.

Personally I applaud Smith for going for youth, although I really wouldn't have bothered with Lee Smith if he's not going to be around. I would have had Pryce in the squad as centre and full back instead. Not stand off in a million years.

Basically the backs look hopeless, but it's up to them to show they can compete.

Burrow is a decent goal kicker and can also cover 9 and played alot better than sykes did at the WC.
Myler played well against pub teams from france and wales and whilst i think he's got huge potential how he can take the 7 shirt without playing since july is ridiculous.

Sam Tomkins has been the form halfback in superleague this season, Rookie of the year, young player of the year and made the dream team. He deserves a chance to see what he can do.

I don't think he'll play in all the games.
I've watched Tomkins, Myler and Eastmond since they were sixteen years of age and the big thing about Sam is he's tougher than the other two and is a better defender and organiser.

All three should and hopefully will get game time in the four (hopefully five) matches.

I am still not convinced about Burrows habit of getting knocked daft. The last thing you need in a high intensity comp against some of the biggest bruisers in RL is your first choice scrum half being carried off groggy or unconscious, again.

I don't think it's safe for Burrow and I don't think it's sensible for the team. And if one person is going to be accutely aware of how much of a risk concussion is to Burrow it's Smith.

The problem is this the Aussie actually do do this and do do that - look at the last WC how many did they put past us?

To get into the Aussie side you have to be an exceptional player - age is not an issue it is about your ability - Hayne isn't just better than Eastmond he is on a different planet.

The Aussies play in the NRL a league so far removed from SL - the only thing they have in common is the team sizes and the ball shape. Inglis knocks sizeable NRL players around love to see him running at Eastmond!!!

Agreed re Tomkins and Eastmond. But i'm sorry, there is no way Myler should be infront of Burrow. No way in million years...

Agree with most of your post. Providing he's not expected to do the above I don't have a problem with his inclusion.

Myler is the only one out of the three who doesn't seem to react to having the right buttons pressed by the opposition, which would worry me.

Both Tompkins and Eastmond have shown signs of being petulant and easy to wind up at times this year, and you can bet your life opposition coaches will have spotted it too.

I have no issues with Tomkins. Earned his chance.

I've no issue with Eastmond likewise though he's been playing threequarters and not half back. He's certainly not shown himself to be a better 7 than Burrow yet.

Myler however, hasn't played since July. He's done nothing to show he's a better 7 than Burrow and isn't at the moment.

International shirts should be earned on the basis on what you have done not given away on the basis of what you might be able to do in the future.

A lot will depend on how the games are reffed. Personally, I expect the PTB to be quicker than in most SL games. I think Burrow's effectiveness is diminished when the PTB is slow (as is Roby's for example) and has meant that he's been less prominent this year. However, in the context of what are likely to be faster games, his omission came as something of a surprise to me.

Have you ever seen Burrow have more time ont he ball than he did on Saturday, it reminded me of when Edwards used to get the ball and defences used to just stand there to see what he was going to do rather than actually go and stop him doing it.
I think it's been mentioned already though, it was nice to watch Leeds' defence, Smith in particular, actually get up there to stop Pryce moving rather than wait for him to run at them.

The squad is woefully inadequate with or without Burrow. However, at least with him in the team we might have salvaged some semblance of pride. Either we get very fortunate or there's a very embarrassing few weeks ahead for the game in this country.
I fully anticipate the latter.

The only place I really see a problem is the outside back personally and lets be fair, they have that many good centres that they just move no.3 and no.4 to wing. If Hall and Smith play on our wing though at least we will have 2 who are fairly quick and compete in the air. Ill also be interested to see how Shenton goes on and hopefuly Bridge gets the nod over Sykes as he is far superior in the skill level.

Im not as concerned as everyone else with the halves. They are a talented bunch but McGuire has to control things, something he has done well this year.

I was reading on an Aussie forum and 1 Aussie thinks that if our forward pack can dominate, which it does look capable of, and McGuire, Tompkins, Sinfield can kick behind the Aussie defence and we can control territory (like we did in the GF) then we have a chance.

Personally I think he's crazy