I'm sick of reading how good Ablett has been for Leeds this year. They've got a 50% win rate in SL and have looked downright awful at times. How they have got 6 players in this team I'll never know. McBanana has split up a young, in-form wing/centre partnership to play a 2nd rower there. The man's a joke and we will not win anything while he's in charge.

Ablett is forming a great partnership with Charnley apparently

"I have been very pleased with the partnership he is forging with Carl Ablett and they are looking a formidable pairing on the right."

so a week of training against no opposition is a better way to forge a partnership than 18 weeks of game time and training together (not that I think Goulding is necessarily international standard, he is a damnsight better than Ablett).

I personally think it would be a closer game than the Exiles game is shaping up to be.

6 of this England team got pounded by Wigan, Warrington and Saints in recent weeks, and has looked decidedly average in their other games.

Let's not forget that the 6 players in question have achieved more in their careers than the remaining 15 of the squad put together.

And therefore that settles the arguement, Edwards is a much better player than big fat Gary schofield ever was.

as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

That seems to be the reasoning behind it. Lets give hanley edwards gregory and betts a call, they used to be good too eh steve. What a clown this bloke is. Hes a walking face palm!

Ricky Bibey has as many medals as Lee Mossop, bring him into the side.

Carl Ablett, a 2nd rower, is one of the top 2 centres in England? Unreal....

Some great suggestions guys, though I don't think Ricky Bibey is international class.

And neither is Jamie Peacock; anymore.
Im one for giving a young coach like McNamara a chance but that team is a complete joke unless he's planning giving the whoolle squad a run over two games

If we lose the series he MUST go.

I wouldn't have Ablett or Sinfield in there. Apart from that it seems a reasonable squad given the players he had available. You have to remember that this squad is missing about 8 or 9 players who are either injured or not available.

RL fans in this country are a major reason the game will never reach its potential. The same fans who are now calling for McNarmara's head are the same ones who wanted Tony Smith gone, I wonder who most fans would rather have in charge now?

All this talk of medals reminds me of something. How many medals did McNamara win as a coach at Bradford = 0.

he has achieved more in his career than Eorl Crabtree has, for example.

Tony Smith was an abject failure too, even more so than McNamara can ever be IMO.

Tony Smith is a coaching god..... just saying like

I'm usually one who defends coaches and especially the England/GB coach from calls to go but, Jesus, he's not helped himself with that squad.
I could almost understand it if he'd kept the same squad as last year or at least only players named in the elite squad earlier this year in an attempt to get some continuity. But he hasnt. So if you're going to bring players in from outside the squad then there is no excuse to play players who are severely out of form and no excuse to not bring in players in form.

Sinfield has not been playing well enough to warrant a place in the game day squad. Ablett is not a centre, does well there for Leeds as a backup and I'd have no problem with him in the larger squad as backup for SR and centre but not first choice centre.
Peacock hasn't played well enough to warrant a starting place, possibly a bench spot.
I don't mind the selection of Hall, Burrow & JJB. Hall is a top class winger and is still playing well in a poor Leeds team. Burrow adds speed and evasion around the ruck off the bench. JJB adds some speed in the backrow and a high work rate.
Why no Brough, Westwood, Goulding or even Bridge?

The team should have been something like:

1. Tomkins
2. Charnley
3. Goulding/Bridge/Pryce/Cudjoe
4. Atkins
5. Hall
6. Chase/Pryce
7. Brough
8. Mossop
9. Roby
10. Crabtree
11. Westwood/Tickle
12. Hock
13. O'Loughlin

14. Burrow
15. Carvell
16. Peacock
17. Tickle/JJB

westwood pulled out didnt he?

Ablett playing centre for England is not a great move, but it's not Goulding they should be looking at. They should think longer term for this and pick the player they see progressing to the position.

It's not an issue for this match though really is it. Reid and Atkins are England's best centres and will no doubt play there come the meaningful internationals. Why involve Goulding at all when he's clearly not up to international RL and never will be? Ablett gets in because he'll be involved in future internationals, even if it's just in a utility role.

The Exiles game is going to become increasingly an England 'B' side anyway, due to the number of players in the NRL who won't come over for the game. Graham, Burgess (Times at least one, possibly two), Ellis, Widdop and Reid should all be in the 13. So one could argue we could take out 5 of the 6 Leeds players there. With the caps going the way they are within a few years I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were 20+ Englishmen in the NRL.

What we can't do is pick average players considered to be on 'form' just because they are playing for the team at the top of the league:

Sinfield organising, great! so that's a couple of flat passes to 2nd rows and a 5th tackle kick straight down the fullbacks throat, brilliant.

Shocking that

Why or why do we have chase in the team he is crap and he was crap last year i don't care that he is not English i do not rate him at all

So suppose that some of the aussie contingent are injured when we come around to crucial games, would it not be better to "blood" players for the future now?

Really? He had a disapointing world cup in 2008, but he coached his team to 3-0 series whitewash the year before. If you look at the squad Smith has available in 2008, it had the likes of Paul Sykes, Lee Smith, Ade Gardner and Mark Calderwood with Gleeson playing stand off. With the team we had available its a wonder we got out of the group stage. I'm convinced that he would've managed to get more out of last years TN squad than McNamara did. Given the choice between Smith and McNamara, its a no-brainer really, Smith everytime.

I won't critisise McNamara too much, he's clearly passionate about the job and given that he took the job when nobody else wanted it, and as far as I know nobody else is willing to do it then I think he deserves a fair chance.