At some point you have to try to build for the future. By all means have a strong group of players who are very experienced but there have been plenty of young forwards who have been playing well this year. Persisting with players who have been there and done very little is hardly progressive. It's hardly going to help England increase the number of available options for the World Cup should those experienced players lose form.

Have Wilkin and JJB really been among the best in their position? Fair enough if they have but it's quite frankly embarrassing if that is the case.

I think its fair to say that some of them names will be in the England squad till THEY either retire or choose themselves not to be included.

I agree that the Knights squad looks far more exciting than the main squad.

Westwood must be injured, he's on of the first names on the team sheet normally.

My big gripe though, is what is the point in playing very average, older players (such as JJB and Wilkin) when you could get a younger player who may not be as consistent now, but it sure to be around the England team for a few years, Liam Farrell for example has been miles better than JJB.

I was quietly optimistic Steve Mac might have gone with a more youthful touch, and perhaps taken a punt on one of our lads, like an Elliott Whitehead.

From a Bradford point of view too, I would have liked to have seen Bryn Hargreaves in or around either squad.

The only Leeds players that should be in the squad are Hall and possibly Ablett, and that's coming from a Leeds fan. Though Peacock won't take a backward step and will no doubt lead from the front he is 34; we should be looking towards the future more. Goulding should be in there on current form. Why put Charnley outside Cudjoe when we know the Goulding/Charnley partnership works so well?

I hope Mossop gets to start looking at the selection of props, i would imagine Peacock is guaranteed to start as the other prop being the captain. It'll be interesting to see who gets the 2 wing spots out of Hall, Briscoe & Charnley, all 3 very good and whoever misses out will be unlucky. I would imagine Hall after last years 4 Nations efforts will be one even though he's not having a stand out year (due to lack of service rather than poor play) so a straight fight between Briscoe and Charnley.

I tend to agree that the Knights squad looks like a more exciting prospect, although I suppose that's the point.

From that squad:
1. Tomkins
2. Charnley
3. Cudjoe
4. Atkins
5. Hall
6. Chase
7. Brough
8. Carvell
9. Roby
10. Peacock
11. JJB
12. Tickle
13. O'Loughlin

14. Burrow
15. Mossop
16. Hock
17. Crabtree

Leroy Cudjoe??!?!? He's been off form this season, Darrell Goulding should have been picked ahead of him IMO, so should Andy Lynch and Westwood ahead of Peacock or JJB. And as much as it annoys me to see the Pies fans go on about him all of the time, McIlorum should have been a dead cert. The only reason I can conceive for him not being selected is that McNamara plans to play Roby for the full 80 minutes, but why in that case was Rob Burrow picked?

I know that no matter what squad McBanana picked, he would be criticised, but he's not helping himself too much!

If McBanana wants a player to stand on the 22m all game, occasionally putting up high kicks, then Wilkin should be a shoe in.
McIllorum, a very well coached average hooker.

Stand on the 22m all game?? That would be a very impressive feat for any player to get away with, think it would have been noticed before now though!!

But he aint Fricken English

What a joke.

Good to see tickle rewarded for his form this season and josh hodgson who has played great for rovers this season too.
Anyone else think England vs England knights would make for an interesting game, the knights having a lot of young players with ambition against the older more experienced guard

im a giants fan and i dont think cudjoe should be starting for us at mo as he has been really poor so shocked he is in england team

If the Knights squad included the best young players available then it would be a very interesting game, but the current Knights squad omits some very talented young players and simply keeps the bulk of the players picked at the start of the year regardless of whether they are in form, are playing regularly or are the best available.

I wasn't arguing that, I was arguing that he hasn't been poor this season.

As a Cas fan i wasnt very happy that Chase chose England and turned his back on NZ, but this is where we are in RL nowadays.

He is now and England player and the though of a Chase/Brough half back pairing really excites me and i think they will compliment each other perfectly.

But knowing mcNamara he will probably not play either of then and have Sinfield at 6 and Peacock at 7

I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth but I would rather have a more in form auzzie/kiwi than Sinfield to partner Brough. I admit this contradicts what I said in the past but Sinfield and the rest of Leeds gave been extremely dire this year so I don't why they should have a god given right to remain in the england squad.

Just because he is top of the assists chart doesnt mean he is the form stand off in SL...all that proves is that Cas (who are poor and currently 12th in table) look to him to create their tries. Both Wigan and Saints have got 2 players in Top 10 for assists so all that proves is that better teams have more than 1 player to look to.

Chase was poor in 4N last year for England, and hasnt set SL alight this year at all, when I have seen him he has been nothing but avergae and looks like a 1 trick pony who was good last year and has since been found out. Pryce is in far better form at Catalans, Lomax is playing well at Saints and both of these are English so why should Chase be included before either of those?

Lomax has been average at best from what I've seen of him. Pryce has been tried and tested and isn't the stand out player at Catalan, Scott Dereau is. Just because Cas are 12th, doesn't mean that Chase hasn't been good this year, our only stand out player many a time this season. You're right, we do look to him to create tries & he evidently does.

no welham in either squad?

That would be because Chase is surrounded by players who aren't Super League quality, stick him in the Wigan team and people would be banging on about how he's one of the best players in the world.



He wasn't poor in the 4 Nations, in the limited time he had on the ball he didn't do much wrong, it's just hard to stand out when Sinfield HAS to be involved in everything.

As for he's looked average this year and a one trick pony - oh dear, he's had his role changed this year because Millward sees him more like Thurston than anyone else so he's tried moulding him into that, wrongly imo but he's still ripping teams to bits on his own, if he had a bit more quality around him he would look even better, a number of times this year he's found an overlap out of nothing only for the intended receiver to not be looking or something, they're all 1 or 2 steps behind him.

Lomax isn't playing well and he's the real definition of a one trick pony and I seriously don't get the hype around him, average at best.



Because he can't tackle?

what A load of dogs footballs this squad is,where is this plank of a coach coming from?? Nathan brown was right about him a few week back.He is a joke,he was at best an average player he did naff all as head coach of the bulls and he will do naff all with the players he picks.
I mean--no mcillorum,mossop??
no goulding??

rangi chase??????? no brough??
cudjoe has been terrible for the giants and is not international class no where near

Chase couldn't unlock a Championship defence