damn, out of the back 4 he looked most likely to cause problems. Looks like he has the size and speed to become something with some decent coaching behind him.

Another vote for the possibility of Joel T at centre.

he barely got any game time, didn't get the chance, good pass for shenton when he made his break though.
Basically we're buggered now, he's an idiot for not calling gleeson up in the first place, have him over atkins any day.

You cant be serious, every time he has had to fill in there for Wigan he has been poor and very bad defensively.

Shenton now being a Saints player has shown he'll fit right right in , what with being injured.

Given Atkins' performance, and assuming Ryan Hall is fit, we could be looking at Cudjoe and Goulding in the centres next week. This does not fill me with hope, but given our options at the moment there's no combination that would...

His girlfriend won't let him go again after his horizontal exploits in 2008




He ought to buy this hat next time he is on eBay

we should play ellis in the , hes played there before and will be good defensivly. bring westwood in at 2nd row and put crabtree/ harrison on the bench. didnt brown used 2 b a maybe another option because hes not performing at stand off

He was pretty ordinary 'defensivly' yesterday.

Why would he be any better against Australia?

The aussie score is going to be very, very ugly for england

The problem for England is they HAVE to win this one whereas Australia don't.

Have England got the cojones to play attacking expansive footy and cause a big upset though?

I would suggest not... but they really do have to give it a go

Why do you think this is-used before and failed, maybe a bad influence in the squad, maybe Mcnamara is looking at the next world cup

You reckon McNamara will still be in charge then?

You never know- Whoever comes in he will have some younger players with Int experience.

But just because they have 'international experience' it doesnt necessarily make them any good?

Thats a bit like saying I'm going to buy a pair of pants that have a waistband that comes up just below my nipples because Simon Cowell wears them

I suspect given the smallish pool of decent Eng players you would hope he has picked 80% of the future-good or bad.

Dont you wear high waisters like your brothers on the farms in Aus

I think this 'smallish pool' of decent England players you speak of must be incredibly shallow if a bloke that cant get a game at the Melbourne Storm is a first choice starter

No more shallow than the Australian Rugby League pool seeing as though you have turned to a 31 year Rugby Union reject to play on the wing

The main difference is that one is a good player with years of experience both at club level in the NRL and at international level too.

The other one is a bloke called Widdles who struggles to get a game at the Storm yet is nailed on to start for England because he is still better than his rival countrymen.

I'd like to see a team something like

1. Tomkins
2. Cudjoe
3. Briscoe
4. Widdop
5. Goulding
6. O'Loughlin
7. Robinson
8. Fielden
9. Lunt
10. Graham
11. Ellis
12. Westwood
13. Burgess

14. Roby
15. Harrison
16. Griffin
17. Crabtree

Why would you play Widdles at 4?

Neat side step

Tell me – what does Lote Tuqiri ‘s selection on the wing for Australia say about the playing pool of this so called bottomless pit of Rugby League playing talent in Australia... do you think it was his contract being terminated by the ARU or his outstanding performances for Leicester in the English RU premier league that got him selected?

The fact he had a decent season for the Tigpies and Tim Sheens is his club coach as well as the Australia international coach.

We've got to get Sam Tomkins in at fullback for me and give him a free reign to roam around the field like he's been doing for Wigan in the 2nd half of this season. I'd also like to see us get Joel in at centre because he is too good to be sitting on the bench for the vast majority of games and he'd cause any defence problems out there with his size, power and pace.

I'd line us up-

S Tomkins
Briscoe
Widdop
J Tomkins
Hall(if fit)
Brown
Robinson
Graham
Roby
Fielden
Ellis
Westwood(deserves to start imo)
O'Loughlin

subs
Crabtree(has to come back in)
Burgess(impact from the bench)
Harrison
Lunt

I like the look of that bench a whole heap more then yesterdays and it would give us some impact when we needed it. The backs as ever will be the worry but then the Aussie 2-5 doesn't look quite as strong as it normally does so hopefully we can limit the damage.

He looked a threat at imo, alot more than Atkins. He looks like the type of player that can do something brilliant then mess up 2 mins later but im bored of the same boring that are `safe'.