Andy Lynch has been selected as captain for England, in the charity game against Cumbria. McNamara has also put Langley at Loose, Scruton on the bench and Paul Sykes at 6.

I know, I couldn't stop laughing.

I wonder how close Sykes was to telling Macca to stuff it after the torrid time he's had playing at 6 this year?! It seems that everyone, including Sykesy, knows that it's not his best position but McNamara!

On a positive note, it's good to see some of the lads get a chance despite the poor second half to the season.

well deserved in both lynch and scrutons cases, both are among the few bulls players to come out of this season with credit. Would expect at least 1 if not both to be on plane to Oz.

does this game count as a full England cap with it being a friendly type game?

because Lynch has been named as captain of this side, does this mean that he is likely to be selected for the four nations squad

Surprised to see Sykes at 6!!!!

Lynch fully deserves it and hopefully it'll mean he'll fature prominently in the England squad for the four nations.

Sykes at 6. Jesus christ.

England will be lucky to beat PNG with McNamara in charge.

Sykes knows he's not a 6, Mick Potter knows he's not a 6, The Bulls board know he's not a 6.

McNamara thinks Sykes is a 6.

In fairness has he got many other options from the squad? I havent seen the squad but who else is available?

especially seeing as he can't pick from leeds,hudds,wigan or saints yet.

Scott Murrell is in the 19. He would be a better option at 6 and has been playing there this year for Rovers.

I'll have a think about others who could have been selected.

I'd put Murrell in at 6 before Sykes

If you don't include Leeds, Hudds, Wigan & Saints, I would say Orr, Gale, Richard Horne or Ratchford would be better than playing Sykes at 6 (assuming they're fit, I don't know if any are injured, I can only assume they are!!!).

Yes, the best candidates are in the other teams, but why couldn't Kev Brown or Sinfield play anyway? Not as if they've got a game this weekend.

apparently because there club commitments didnt finish till weeknd just gone. cant ask them to play two games in 8 days so they dont come into contention until after cumbria game.

Yet another case of international RL just not being important to far too many players and clubs.

Like Kirk Yeaman for example. Every time he's fit enough and gets picked for England or is due to get picked, he says no because he's got a mystery injury that didn't stop him playing for Hull.

International game just doesn't seem important to most people in RL these days.

Anyway, I'm detracting from the matter at hand.

A big well done for Andy Lynch who fully deserves his place and the armband for this match. He's been overlooked for far too long at this level due to the plentiful supply of good English props.

Is it on telly?

Nope

Personally, I don't think that currently International RL is that important. Until England/GB can produce 30 world class players, we'll never compete with the Aussies and Kiwis on the International stage. It's just an end of season distraction when most clubs would prefer their players rested and in pre-season preparation.

England have two world class players. Ellis and Sam Burgess. I'm not saying the other players aren't good, but if they were truly great they'd have NRL clubs sniffing after them.

I'd prefer it if no Bradford player was selected for international duty at the end of the season. We've a new coach and new players coming in. It would be far better for the club and far less disruptive if we had our entire squad turning up for pre-season on 4th Nov

Catch 22 though isn't it? Until people start taking the international game seriously, we're not going to produce enough top class players for England (partly because none of them can be @rsed playing for England). But until we start producing those players, people aren't going to take it seriously.

Personally, as I've stated before, I think the demise of GB has devalued the international game in this country and our ability to put out a world class team, never the quality the other 'home' nations are able to field. The game simply is not big enough in the UK to allow us to produce 4 competetive teams.

International RL at the very top level consists of 3 teams, and that's at a push. Below that you have the odd team who may occasionally cause and upset but it's a completely different playing field and will continue to be until the countries competing have a domestic league of a sufficient standard to produce quality players. How much damage does having an uncompetetive World Cup do, not only to the nations but to the image of the game, especially compared to the Rugby Useless one?

If our options (over and above, 4 non selected teams' players) at 6 are limited to Scott Murrell and Paul Sykes, then our production line of homegrown "talent" is simply not working.

It'll take some time for things like the homegrown rule to kick in, but if Sykes is an international stand off then I'm Martin Offiah.

If Sykes is an international of any standing then I'm Wally Lewis.

We have been "producing" homegrown players since the game began, we shouldn't need to factor in some Governing body rule to enhance it or make it effective.

The obsession with overseas players in the backs is becoming increasingly evident. Few of them of real class.

We shouldn't need to factor it in but I think we need to as it was brought about to help address the issues we're both complaining about.

Lynch is far too quiet for a captain IMO, I don't go for the leading by example angle. But there's probably no-one else in the chosen squad. He deserves his place in the team without a doubt but not sure about him for the 4N.