It’s a really poor looking squad. He’s picked 1 centre with Kallum and Bateman as 2 and 3. Not that I can think of any other centres to pick.

At hooker I’d pick Ackers from those 2. What has Hodgson been up to down under?

That first game v Samoa is gonna be tough.

There’s the problem, like many positions we look so thin in quality. But he was poor in both games v Leeds.

1 centre
2 half backs
2 hookers
14 props/back row
Remind me what position Wane played?

At the risk of upsetting some of our St Helens regulars I find it really disappointing that Lomax is now unfit to play. Didn’t look that way on Saturday night. He's been playing with that injury for months when he could have either been rested or operated on. Instead he is out of the world cup. Further proof, if any more were needed, of the myopic nature of the clubs.

Zak Hardaker

Farnworth and Watkins will be the centres but both have had bad recent injuries and Watkins has been playing back row so…can’t wait to see Bateman in the outside backs again.

Also mcilorum, really…the cynic in me would suggest a Wigan bias.

Ryan Sutton assuming he’s not injured.

Failing that I’d have taken Havard, Matty English or Oliver Wilson before Cooper

I would take Cooper over Hill and if Sutton isn`t injured that`s another one I would have in over both Cooper and Hill.
Not sure what`s upsetting so many about McIllouram being in the squad either.
He`s been in the top 3 hookers all season.

The squad is just painfully average. I cant get excited about the world cup at all.

I agree Seth especially wrt the England squad
The plus points are watching the likes of Samoa, NZ and Australia.

Totally this. Hope we're wrong but there's no surprises in there for the NRL teams. Newman could have been our magic but injury killed that although I'm not 100% sure he'd be in the team. Appears we're trying to beat the Aussies at their own game which we've proved in the past is almost impossible. Hope wrong but not an inspiring squad.

Most exciting World Cup in a long time.

Forget England. Enjoy the other nations. Strong Samoa side, can't wait to see how far they can go

This is true. For once it's not a three horse race, or a two horse race. Some of the island nations are actually getting their best players and the playing field is levelled. England will probably be awful, the squad looks weak across the squad. No one in there is the best player in the competition in that position.

Fiji look decent too. Korisau is a big addition for them. They look strong across the board, but maybe lacking in the halves.

Even Lebanon have better halves than England. Looks like it’ll be Douehi and Mitch Moses.

Yeh, I'm looking forward to some of the games.
But I do expect England to totally underwhelm.
Wane is a bit of a joke.
Short of centres, how is Hardaker not in. I guess we all know why. And what about Wardle?
All those back rowers, but no Bentley or Mcqueen?
Cooper and Hill are finished. Why not try English or Dupree as back up? And what's up with Sutton?
Sneyd in the halves? He will get totally exposed in defence. I'd have rather seen Harry Smith or Will Pryce in the squad.
And McIlorum is a totally penalty machine. I really dislike the way he plays. But Wane loves him. What's up with Hodgson?

We've got some big misses tbh - Walmsley, Lomax, Percival, Newman, Johnstone.
But it's a pretty uninspiring squad.

Absolutely. England are way down the pecking order these days.

Great to see the island nations look so strong.

Hodgsons injured but even with that I still wouldn’t have picked mcilorum.

I'm not sure about this theory. A bit like with the SL salery cap is the overall competition going to be a better quality or have some of the nations like England and New Zealand just regressed and the quality diluted.

Can’t wait for the World Cup but I think it’ll be England’s worst performance in terms of results in the professional era, I expect it will bring an end to Wane’s time as England head coach, something he’s spent years working on “full time”.

Really looking forward to seeing Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and PNG. .

Unbelievable that in the same post you called McIlorum a penalty machine and advocated for Bentley to be selected.

Bentley's discipline was poor earlier in the season, but he's certainly sorted it out in recent weeks and was our best player in the run to the GF.
McIlorum is just horrible.

What channel is the RLWC going to be on? Can I cancel premier sports?!

All the games are on the BBC

agree totally.

Having just watched the NRL Grand Final, and looked at the physicality and athleticism of the players in that comp, I've come to the conclusion that England will get shafted by anyone south of Watford...