McGillvary, Welham, Lomax, Mossop and Whitehead should have all been called up into a 22 man squad imo instead of some of the guys that have been picked. I thought this was an opportuntiy to show off some of superleagues young talent coming through but instead we pick guys like Carvell and JJB.

Shocking squad imo.

Thought the same about Richie Myler. I almost ran him over in the car park outside the Spar/Sun bed shop in Padgate. I had my excuse ready, "I didn't see him Gov". But he sidestepped quite nicely. I didn't actually mean to speed up, my foot slipped. He really is quite small.

Is McNamara from the Brian Noble school of coaching? Didn't Noble have a bit of a reputation for holding young players back? Sam Tomkins being the most recent example.

You are Eorl Crabtree and I claim my £5

He shouldn't. He's Welsh and proud of it.

Bingo.

bloody them in the knights....thats what its there for!!!


and please stop with the welham nonsense.....he could'nt tackle josh charnley at the weekend imagine what inglis,hodges or SKD would do to him

When you put it like that, it does look like a crusade... Atkins is a good SL player and I was hoping he would step up last year and become a good international centre –he’s strong enough and quick enough that’s for sure but he let himself down badly in last year’s 4 Nations. Not just his man on man defence, his reading of the play from Australia and New Zealand was very poor

I don’t know if anybody can do better but it’s at least worth finding out

according to Bootsnall its

6. sinfield
7. brough

that'll do for me...kev a solid 6,does'nt do a lot wrong,he'll marshall the pack around the pitch and it will enable brough to concentrate on doing 'special' things

But how far forward does this take us as a team?

I thought we had stopped playing loose forwards at stand-off after Farrell and Sculthorpe and now we are doing it all over again with O'Loughlin last year and now Sinfield

God, I hope Widdop is fit at the end of the year!

not sure what you mean...but what it suggests to me is that come the end of the season widdop will play 6 and kev will revert to the utility role as cover....so if you think about it like that it does show some forward thinking on Mcnamaras part.........god help us



and i think thats abit hard on sinfield to lump him in with scully*,farrell & o'loughlin who are/where proper forwards...sinfield should have always been a halfback or hooker



* i always had scully down as a fantastic 6...but maybe thats just me?

Sculthorpe won the Man of Steel award playing at 6. He was an excellent Stand Off.

Sculthorpe was an excellent stand off because he was an excellent player - but he really was a loose forward

As has been said before it's all about what role you ask the player to fulfil rather than what number he wears on his back. You could pick Sinfield at 13 but he wouldnt be effective if you ask him to be a workhorse.
Same goes for Brough, there's no point picking him if you don't want him to do what he does at his club.

Right I see your point now, even if they did well there we should of had a recognised 6?

People who i would have in :

Kevin Brown.....seems an obvious choice after picking Brough, to have his half back club partner in who are cutting through most defences this year !!

LMS.....is he injured or just not picked?

Yeaman ....on form and playing well

Griffin.....better than Crabtree for me this year

Foster.....maybe young and inexperienced but is playing superbly well and IMO could have took that enthusiasm into this game

Just not picked.

Hmmmm...........strange !!

what number is that then?

makes a bit of a mockery of having these up and coming young players but hen picking JJB(whats that all about?)peacock,carvell,wilkin etc, not saying these aren't good players but surely we should be looking forward not back? surely these guys have had their chance and should be replaced by new faces?
why not throw in a few surprises and give some of the knights players a chance to test themselves in an international shirt?
and why do we insist on picking loose forwards/2nd rowers at stand off!!

S Tomkins
Briscoe
Shenton
Cudjoe
Hall
Brough
Myler
Graham
Roby
Morley
J Tomkins
Westwood
O Loughlin

Wilkin
Carvell
Crabtree
Robinson

All I will say on this thread is:

a) I'm disappointed with the squad
b) It's the same players who have underperformed in previous tournaments
c) What happened to the "we're preparing for the 2013 World Cup" line that was trotted out.

Underwhelmed, pick from the big teams once again, ignore players in form. Same old, same old. Lost interest in the Eng v Exiles fixture now. I wanted to see how good the 'new wave' was going to be.

but the exiles game is'nt about seeing the "new wave"......its about giving the current crop a decent hit out.....the knights is all about the "new wave"


the 2013RLWC is the mine aim...but getting to this years 4nations final is just as important as its the last tournament before the world cup...and with it being at home,like the world cup, it'll lay down a serious marker....

Agree the present is also important but I can't see us getting anywhere near and can't see any markers being put down

To be fair Fitler used to play loose forward or stand off for Aus, didnt do them any harm. It depends on the player, Sinfield can and does comfortably play either position and has a good passing and kicking game

Farrell, Sculthorpe and O'loughlin are/were loose forwards who were just filling in at stand off