I give McBanana 1 game as England coach before he loses the respect of the players and 1 tour before the RFL realise they've appointed a pudding to coach our finest!

Disaster for my club, becomes disaster for my country

When he was appointed I wondered on what basis. He seems to be popular amongst players in a matey sort of way so the RFL probably thought they were onto a winner. But it's like having a mate as a boss, it all ends in tears.

Look on the bright side, England will finally win something this year!

Admittedly, it's a wooden spoon, but it's better than nothing eh?

Bit harsh.

The bloke hasn't even had a shot yet and he's being bagged. Perhaps reserve judgement until the full side has actually played NZ or Aus.

Not exactly blessed with blistering playing talent to work with is he.

Squad announced:

Backs: R Atkins (Warrington), T Briscoe (Hull), K Brown (Huddersfield), T Clubb (Harlequins), L Cudjoe (Huddersfield), D Goulding (Wigan), R Hall (Leeds), L Robinson (Huddersfield), S Tomkins (Wigan), M Shenton (Castleford), G Widdop (Melbourne).

Forwards: S Burgess (South Sydney), E Crabtree (Huddersfield), G Ellis (Wests Tigers), S Fielden (Wigan), J Graham (St Helens), D Griffin (Huddersfield), B Harrison (Warrington), S Lunt (Huddersfield), A Morley (Warrington, capt), S O'Loughlin (Wigan), J Roby (St Helens), J Tomkins (Wigan), B Westwood (Warrington).

And yes, that's not a single Bulls player in there, showing even more how bad a season we've had.

Or on the same logic as the idiots suggesting Macca was "doing favours" and showing bias towards Bradford players, perhaps now he's being spiteful? No, that's b0llocks too.


Surprised at inclusion of Fielden, but fully deserved. I would have brought Martin Gleeson back in too though.

Shaun Lunt getting picked shows just how poor our hooking options are. And I'm sorry, but although I quite like Griffin, the idea that he's better than Lynch or Scruton is nuts. Put Lynch or Scruton in a better side with a better coach and they'd blow away Griffin.

No Gleeson, Sinfield and one of Lynch/Scruton is appalling selection evaluation.

Luke Robinson better than Burrow? No, not even close.

Shaun Lunt? Oh dear.

Worst England squad to leave these shores ever!!

from that squad (why no Scruton/ Burrow/Gleeson/Mcilorum/ etc....?)

I would pick:

1. S Tomkins (Wigan
2. D Goulding (Wigan
3 M Shenton (Castleford),
4 R Atkins (Warrington),
5 R Hall (Leeds),
6 K Brown (Huddersfield)
7 L Robinson (Huddersfield),
8 J Graham (St Helens),
9 J Roby (St Helens),
10 A Morley (Warrington, capt)
11 S Burgess (South Sydney),
12 G Ellis (Wests Tigers),
13 S O'Loughlin (Wigan),

14 G Widdop (Melbourne).
15 S Lunt (Huddersfield),
16 S Fielden (Wigan),
17 J Tomkins (Wigan),

Worst England half backs ever?

Wouldn't have Goulding over Briscoe.

Can't see a value in having a back on the bench, Widdop needs to start with Tomkins at 6 since he is our most potent weapon.

Tomkins wouldnt get near for me. Penalty machine. Westood and Harrison way ahead in ability and performance.

But as you rightly say, worst England team to ever represent.

Go Super League!

A few players missing through injury who would improve the side / squad (at least in my view)

Sinfield
McGuire
Pryce
Eastmond

Best team I can pick out of that:

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Darrell Goulding
3. Michael Shenton
4. Ryan Atkins
5. Tom Briscoe
6. Gareth Widdop
7. Luke Robinson
8. Adrian Morley
9. Shaun Lunt
10. James Graham
11. Sam Burgess
12. Gareth Ellis
13. Sean O'Loughlin
SUBS
14. James Roby
15. Ben Westwood
16. Joel Tomkins
17. Stuart Fielden or Eorl Crabtree

With Burgess playing a bit of back row and a bit of front row.

I can't believe from that squad, the best 7 and starting 9 I can pick is Robinson and Lunt! Can't we clone Sam Tomkins to play fullback and Scrum Half?

Harsh leaving out Ryan Hall, but I feel he doesn't play as well without Senior inside him (oo er), and Briscoe & Goulding's form this year means they deserve the chance first. If one had a nightmare though, I'd have no problem with Hall coming in to replace them.

Yup, all shoe in's.

And of course we forget the captain, Jamie Peacock.

The Aussies have plenty of injuries, yet have depth right across the comp....because they clearly value producing homegrown players. Maybe the penny will drop over here in ten years.

So a lad who is deemed not good enough to play 7 for Huddersfield is the solitary scrum half in a touring party?

What has Steve Macnamara got against half backs? He didn't think we needed any at Bradford and he appears to have taken the same philosophy into the international set up. The one crumb of comfort is that Sykes hasn't been picked.

Looking at the squad we are taking over, I can't see us causing NZ or Aus much trouble in all honesty. I guess McNamara will take the majority of the flak though when we get turned over by the Kiwis and Aussies.

He's the one picking them to be fair, so deserves a fair chunk of either credit or flak depending on how it goes.

One thing that does occur to me.

If McNamara thinks all our players aren't good enough to play for England, why the f*ck did he sign them for Bradford in the first place? I appreciate you can't always sign internationals, but the fact he doesn't think that ONE of the squad he signed is good enough really makes you wonder.

Ryan Hall simply has to play. Best winger we have by some distance. Size, pace, strength and big game experience.

F*ck Lunt off. Simply play Roby for the 80, he's upto it and the "impact" hooker doesn't work at International level, the opposition forwards are too savvy and well rotated. The impact hooker works in SL because of the relative weakness of many benches given the Salary Cap restrictions.

My team:

Widdop
Briscoe
Shenton
Atkins
Hall
O'Loughlin
Tomkins
Moz
Roby
Graham
Ellis
Westwood
Burgess

Fielden
Harrison
Crabtree
Tomkins (and I'm yet to be convinced)

Either way, that side is troubling nobody.

I don't think the aussies depth is due in any way to them valuing home grown players. It's to do with the fact that in the areas of Aus where RL is popular, it IS the dominant sport, in much the same way that football is in the UK. So this leads to a much larger player pool. The population of the Aus where RL is at it's strongest doesn't have a vastly different number of people living there than the combination of Yorks, Lancs and Cumbria. But, because they don't have to deal with a financial behemouth like the Premier League, the NRL is able to attract the top young athletes in the area.

McNamara and his England side may very well take a kicking, but that's what happens when you put a team with 2 world class players up against teams with 17 world class players, with reserves trying to push their way into the starting 17.

And I believe he did say he was looking to take the best "team" rather than the best players

He is, but the pool of talent to pick from just isn't there. I'm struggling to pick a different squad which I think would result in a different set of results over there. I suppose at least we have a ready made scapegoat though.

He really doesn't have a clue, thank god we don't have to put up with him anymore at Bradford, just a shame he will now set back the England team by several years.

Without doubt elements of truth and logic there.

My point being is we have a large pool of "talent" right down to grassroots level but the obsession with anything antipodean being allowed to play for all our SL sides is a major hamstring in our international development, or lack of. Outstanding overseas players always benefit the comp. The concern is those "average" players getting in, again into nigh on every team. But then that goes back to the age old SL v Int debate. Ho hum.

While he doesn't have a great pool to pick from, there are better options than the likes of Robinson & Lunt. Sinfield & Burrow would definitely be improvements as halves than Robinson. As far as hookers go, while we have no top class ones any more, the likes of Clarke, Moore, Diskin & Higham are surely better options than Lunt!

No doubt we would rather have the likes of Kyle Eastmond out there, who is probably first choice No.7, and that's out of his hands. But a couple of those choices and a couple of omissions are just nuts.

In fact, the top 3 in that squad that I can't believe are in there, are all from the Giants. Not sure what to make of that (although no doubt their fans will believe the whole RL Community are biased against them for sharing a similar opinion).

Sinfield withdrew through injury. Burrow has had his opportunity and has done little at International level. Perhaps the hookers could have been different but I don't think there is a huge difference in quality between any of them. Perhaps he chose Lunt because he was going to go with Robinson at 7.

I'm not sure I'd have picked Griffin either but by the same token, the replacements are of a similar quality IMO.

I wasn't aware of that one, but that explains the most surprising name missing from the squad. That's actually good to know, as if he'd simply left him out it would be more amazing.

We'll agree to disagree on the others. I personally think other options are far better than Robinson & Lunt, and there are a couple above Griffin too.

Two big positives for me though are Fielden deservedly getting back in, and Richie Myler being left out.

Oh I hadn't even noticed Tony Clubb. Another massively overrated player. Always seems to have plenty of potential, never seems to show it.

I suppose putting a Londoner in there keeps the Southern lot and Journos interested though eh?