My choice as England's first choice hooker ahead of Roby, Clark, Higham, Mcillorum and Houghton. Of all of those players he exploits space around the ruck the best. His distribution, timing and movement just exceptional not to mention his kicking from dummy half.

We need a hooker to do the business in three years’ time, sadly Sinfield has too many miles on the clock.

So, Roby & Clark for me.

Thought Clark looked special tonight. His footwork is fantastic.

Are you drunk?

Sinfield had a good game,Clark was better though.

Josh Hodgson is in front of Mcilorum, and Danny Houghton should not be mentioned In the same breath as internationals!

No chance. McIlorum is miles ahead of Hodgson, and I'd be quite happy with Houghton at hooker for England.

I'm a big fan of Sinfield but I'd prefer MacNamara to look elsewhere now, even if he goes on to have the best season of his career.

I've been waiting on Houghton to 'kick on' for a while now and it hasn't happened unfortunately. I think McIlorum deserves more of a run in the next 12-18 months, I've been really impressed with him recently. Roby could play three games back to back and not let the side down but I think we need another option off the bench.

Sinfield is our best halfback and should stay there.

EDIT: Didn't mention Clark which was my whole idea of posting. Been impressed with him and he should certainly come into contention should one of Roby/McIlorum get injured.

So in short you don't want the national side to be picked on form?

McIllorum just isn't good enough. He's also got that brain dead streak you really don't need against superior opposition where you've got to be disciplined. Like that other idiot Newton, he's just one you would want to keep well away from internationals.

Roby and Clark should be England's hookers for now.

No. My opinion is that we should be looking to build for the next WC.

By way of a return question, when was the national side ever been picked entirely on form?

Why should we be looking to the next WC? We should be looking to pick the best squad to win whatever tournement we are playing in at that time.

You make it sound like the two are mutually exclusive. They're not.

Well quite, but I wouldn't omit a player who is right for the job just because they won't be there in a few years time.

FWIW I would pick Sinfield in the squad as captain for this years tournament and then I would think he would retire, he was one of our best in the WC and is playing very well so far this year.

If McIlorum wasn't wearing cherry and white nobody would even mention him for the England squad, never mind first choice 9. He's a plodder with a high work rate. He's light years from the world's best hookers and not even in the top 4 English hookers.

He was one of our best in the WC and is indeed playing very well this year. Like I said, I'm a fan. We'll just have to differ on whether he should be picked this year or not.

This is the problem though, we then have to bring a new half back through in either a lions tour or home 4N. There two tournaments we have a better chance of winning than this one.
Would rather we use this tournament to bring them through. If we're picking on form then Peacock would be first name down on team sheet.

I disagree. Second behind Roby for me.

I would put Daryl Clarke before McIllorum

I think it would be pretty one dimensional of us to go with both Roby and Clarke. Clarke is very similar to Roby, so I'm not sure why we would go with both in the 17. I would take both but only for cover in case of injury.

I think Sinfield would be a good option to use off the bench - also he comes with the added bonus of being able to cover in the halves if needed. Roby also plays 80mins regularly for saints so that wouldn't be too much of an issue.

On what grounds? Speed? No. Step? No. Kicking game? No. Handling skill? No. Defence is all he has + average distribution.

I wouldn't say he is that good defensively. He misses a lot of tackles. He has a lot of aggression and that's it.

Wigan miss McIlorum when he's not there. not sure if he's what we need against the Aussies tho.

Mickey Mac brings what as a Hooker? lots of tackles and some aggression.
You should get that from your back three, a Hooker should be creative and set the teams play along with the Halves.
I doubt an angry Hooker is going to bother Oz or NZ too much, they will lap up that style everyday.