Typical England management trying to save face covering up instead of making the hard, strict and correct action if true.

You do wrong representing your country as an ambassador then you are out with very little chance of return in the near future. It's that simple.

This is assuming as you say they were going down the injury route.

So were others definately involved or not??

What an idiot. Was lucky to be in the squad anyway, and he's blown it. The biggest and daftest odd the BDLs

So losing the best hooker in the league by a country mile this season isn't a big loss when coming up against the best country in Rugby League well whatever it is your smoking I'd love to join you.

It's not so bad when you consider that the best hooker in the league by a country mile will be selected at 9 on Saturday. And, he's perfectly capable of playing 60-70 minutes at the top of his game against any side.

Also, Micky Higham and Shaun Lunt were the form hookers this season by a long way.

Shaun Lunt was the best hooker in the league by a country mile.

If the rumours of Hardaker's involvement are true it adds weight to the rumours about his behaviour at Leeds.

Yes, yes I know that's a lot of rumours.

From what I have heard tonight (yes I know, it's being doing the rounds forever), Hardaker may not be a problem at Leeds much longer.

Hope this is not true.

Such a good player with potential to get better.Would hate to see him tearing it up for the next decade wearing cherry and white for example.

Apparently all the above mentioned were.

Hock going home was the easiest choice for Steve MC. What a nightmare few days on eve of World Cup!

Depends. He is a good player but if he's doing the wrong things off the field then that's not someone we need in our club. What message does it give to the youngsters?

We certainly don't owe him a living so if he wants to mess around then perhaps another club is the best option for all.

That being said..... I'm just playing devil's advocate here, I hope he doesn't go too

England's world cup is turning into a disaster before it has even begun. It's going to take a massive effort just to avoid the biggest embarassment for the national side in a generation. Remember, Melbourne 2008 was on sky......at stupid o'clock in the morning, no one saw it.

This is on at a prime time slot, saturday afternoon, FTA TV, with a whole bunch of advertising behind it. Mother of god.

It's been a farce from the start so far. The pointless camp in south africa, the dire warm up game, and now this.

Anyone who says it was just a friendly, simply look at what has been said. Mcnamara has said the players had the wrong attitude, Sinfield has said they did everything to prepare and the defeat shocked them.

Firstly, if the attitude is wrong warming up for the biggest tournament in a generation, you don't have the mentality to go on a win the thing.

Secondly, if the attitude is wrong, then with hindsight the defeat is expected. But as far as what sinfield has said they don't know what went wrong, they'll work hard and it seems they'll hope something magically clicks against australia.

I know you can't read too much into what is said in the press, but the whole thing just sounds like a disjointed rabble. I know it's punishable by death to criticise sinfield on here but this whole situation just seems to be too much for him to deal with.

This situation with Hock and the rumour surrounding it, we don't know what's happened before. But it seems that theres unprofessional, and unhappy cliques within the camp. That's a recipe for failure.

The most annoying thing is we have 2 great halfbacks who would be ideal and we've somehow managed to f*ck that up through circumstance and poor selection. Brough got impatient and sodded off (after being continually overlooked by banana) and smith has been overlooked as well. 2 of widdop, brough and smith should have been the halfbacks. It's certainly a much better choice than sinfield and chase, who will be woeful on saturday.

England will be well beaten on saturday, they'll struggle against Fiji who are a very physical skilfull team but they'll get through to the quarters on ac of beating ireland.

Whether they get thrashed by NZ in the quarters or the semis simply depends on how the other groups play out, i'm not sure how it's seeded.

It's going to be another torrid world cup for england. I'm sorry if this all sounds very negative or massively knee jerk but it's how i see things playing out, the reality.

From what I have heard, Hardakers indiscretion is no different to what Bailey has done a few times before him, and Delaney on a couple of occassions last year.

Brilliant stuff. What's wrong with these people? "Want to play in a World Cup?" "No ta, rather £$%^ around with my mates and act like a twelve year old."

If this is true, I think McIlorum would be a miss. But, if what is being rumoured about their conduct is true, none of them will be missed. And I'd have sent them all home. It's a World Cup. Bad enough in the course of normal season, but you'd get over it. Surely, up against the very best in the world, when things on the pitch will be hard enough, they could take it a bit more seriously.

On the plus side, I'm glad Ferres gets his chance.

I haven't heard the rumours but they should all be treated equally. If Hock has to go then the others should, and bring in the young lads from the Knights squad who want to give it their all.

It's a sad day for England RL.

Can that even be done? I thought the squads were supposed to be finalised two weeks ago, hence New Zealand having a quick deadline to replace Harris with SBW before the final squads were submitted. After that, unless I'm mistaken, replacements could only be made because of injury. In fact, England look in breach of those rules even replacing Hock for non-injury reasons.

Time frame doesn’t really fit does it. Hardaker says this today www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6173563 McNamara said on Tuesday both Tom Burgess and Zak Hardaker were in contention to play Saturday, McNamara also insisted that South Sydney prop Tom Burgess and Leeds centre Zak Hardaker were in contention after stepping down to play for England Knights in their 52-16 thrashing of Samoa, which was played as a curtain-raiser at the Salford City Stadium on Saturday. "They were always in the frame," said McNamara, who watched the entire Knights game live. "They did play well and I thought Brett Ferres was good as well. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... te-6221587 Hock was apparently kicked out on Sunday. Most likely thing to have happened in my opinion, is that something not all that bad occurred. A couple of players got a telling off, Hock’s indiscretion was the straw that broke the camels back for him and he went. The rumour mill then went in to over-drive with a few well placed hints from people who should know better and we get this whole hullabaloo.

Time frame doesn’t really fit does it. Hardaker says this today www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/s ... -1-6173563 McNamara said on Tuesday both Tom Burgess and Zak Hardaker were in contention to play Saturday, McNamara also insisted that South Sydney prop Tom Burgess and Leeds centre Zak Hardaker were in contention after stepping down to play for England Knights in their 52-16 thrashing of Samoa, which was played as a curtain-raiser at the Salford City Stadium on Saturday. "They were always in the frame," said McNamara, who watched the entire Knights game live. "They did play well and I thought Brett Ferres was good as well. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... te-6221587 Hock was apparently kicked out on Sunday. Most likely thing to have happened in my opinion, is that something not all that bad occurred. A couple of players got a telling off, Hock’s indiscretion was the straw that broke the camels back for him and he went. The rumour mill then went in to over-drive with a few well placed hints from people who should know better and we get this whole hullabaloo.

Are you (or anyone else 'in the know') prepared to enlighten us further?

Why should they be treaten equally?

There was an indiscretion, that all are punished in someway for.

As a result of that indiscretion, only one of the players failed to turn up for training. For which he is punished for.

You have to wonder what kind of help Gareth Hock is getting. Infuriating as it is, looking back over his last few years, none of it is the story of a man who's happy in his world.

On England's prospects, I've never been hugely optimistic, but this squad looks on paper a lot better than the 2008 squad, for instance. It is, in all honesty, the best squad we've picked for a few years IMO. It's a long step from there to actually beating the best team(s) in the world, but it looked like a start.

Yet at the weekend it produced the worst England or GB result I can remember (I've been watching since the late 80s, can anyone think of a worse one that I'm missing?).

I like being as optimistic as I can, and I'm looking forward to the tournament as a whole. But I am worried about England's chances, and the tournament needs England to do well (all world cus need a strong home nation to really take off).

Hopefully we get a bit of siege mentality setting in and they can at least produce a competitive performance at the weekend. I think the RFL have got the organisation going pretty well for the tournament (only fair to say that since I am so critical a lot of the time) and it would be a shame for the bubble to be burst by a horrible pasting on Saturday.

They were on the night before training, Hock missed training the others managed to make it. Hock got the boot.

Or something, whatever who cares

Me. I care. Alright? You got a problem with that? You want a piece of me? Is that it? Is that what this is all about?

They should all be knuckling down and preparing for a World Cup.

Makes you question the whole England set-up. In terms of commitment. The management capabilities of Steve Mac etc.

Hock deserves to walk a tighter tightrope than the rest (drugs ban...eye gouging etc) he's lucky to be around an international set-up. Lads blown it again.

Some of the responses make me laugh to be honest.

Previous visits to these shores from the Aussies and Kiwis, have also resulted in very similar scenarios, with players out drinking and getting into trouble, players ending up suspended.

Yet Southern Hemisphere is held in such high regard.

That is what is more double standard than Hock getting sent home and others not.

This sort of thing happens, simple as that. And it happens at club level often also. And it happens exactly the same with other sports.

It's now being handled by the management team, so it goes.

I don't think it's double standards. I hold the on-field ability of Australia and New Zealand's players in high regard. I have no idea how professional their set ups off the field are and I really don't care. If Australia can turn up and go on the pish every night and win the tournament, so be it. We are the third best team on the field, as such we need to pull out all the stops and the players have to be 100% focused and committed.

Clubs have all season to deal with it. I would be surprised if not turning up for training once or twice in the regular season was punished as severely as doing it the week before a big play-off game. I question whether anyone, however talented, who can't perceive a need to focus on the job this week has the right mentality to really deliver on that talent.

Remember here, that contrary to what the good Doctor at Salford suggests, nobody has been sacked here. Gareth Hock still has his job. He just doesn't get to represent his country at a World Cup. Which seems fair enough if he can't take it seriously.

I have no particular moral outrage about it, I just don't believe that we can afford a sloppy attitude if we're going to close the obvious gap to Aus and NZ. That means we need the right people in the right places. People who can't concentrate on the job are not the right people.