I'm not disagreeing..... I would have him start at 7 for england... he is a much better option than brough.. and Myler, as good as he has been this year, isnt ready yet.

I was pointing out the OP's ridiculous statements in regards 'superleagues best defence' and he has not 'seen myler do it in any game this year'... which is frankly a bit silly... as he has had a great season for us./.. maybe he just doesn't watch much rugby league.

Yeah, 4 times grand final winning captain, Lance Todd and Harry Sunderland trophy winner, super leagues leading point scorer, Leeds rugby league all time highest goal kicker,etc etc - what's he ever done to deserve an international shirt ?

Irrespective of who plays, we have to have a very strong kicking game.

(Sorry, that makes me sound like Phil Clarke, stating the obvious).

I agree, I've been saying Brough all year but he's lost form. I'd go Lomax now, he needs to get used to the setup as he's probably the favourite to be our 7 in 2013.

On the other hand kicking could be an issue if we played Lomax instead of Brough, you'd have to be relying on part-time kickers again in O'Loughlin, Tomkins and Widdop.

It's a tough call, we all remember what happened when Sinfield kept kicking to Slater on the full at Elland Road in '09.

Sadly though, we won't.

Always a problem of ours.

STOP KICKING TO F***ING SLATER SO HE CAN RUN ONTO THE BALL!!!!!!!

Get the little turd in the ingoal and give him a load of grief like the Kiwis do and he'll fall to bits like he does in finals against them.

You make it sound so easy

The problem is not who is doing the kicking, its where on the field they are kicking from. If your 5th tackle is on your 20m line, the chances are the kick return will be pretty good. So we need to get at least to the halfway line in a set to have an effective kicking game.

Would deffo have him in the squad, but we need a kicking game and for now he does not have an international class kicking game. Brough may be out of form, but he does have the best kicking game in the league (plus he is the most rounded English 7 in the league). How about having Lomax coming off the bench as interchange hooker. Plus he will have the versatility to cover half, full back and centre.

Spot on. Brough was the form half in the first part of the year but Lomax has passed him now

Lomax has got great distribution and when he attacks the line he is excellent. Plus he is defensively good as well

Funny isn’t it – a year ago we were bemoaning the loss of Eastmond but for me Lomax is a far better all round player

I understand what you say about the form thing, but Brough brings something that England have been desperately been missing for years. Brough may be slightly out of form now but when he is playing well he is as good an allround player as Lomax + a kicking game. I think having DB and Widdop at half gives us balance. Lomax is certainly a talent and should be in the squad mind and included somewhere.

6 Widdop
7 Lomax
13 Sinfield

For me we should be looking to start building a team this year for the 2013 World Cup, and its a great opportunity to get our young players used to eachother over the next 2 years to prepare us.

Tomkins at 1, Widdop at 6, Lomax at 7 and Roby at 9 has great potential and 4 of the best attacking players we have, so why not give them a shot this year and the experience will be valuable down the line for them. For me its about time we ditched the old guard such as Morley, Peacock etc who are too old for international rugby now and give other people an opportunity to show what they can do - after all we have never managed to beat the Aussies more than once a year with the old lot in their prime so cant do much worse

I agree that Brough brings a quality kicking game to the team

Looking at the key positions and those that appear nailed on for a spot, we have

1. Tomkins

6. Widdop

9. Roby

I haven’t seen enough of Widdop this year to rate kick kicking game but other posters suggest that Smith and Cronk take this duty at Melbourne. Tomkins seems to have an improving long kicking game and Roby sometimes kicks from dummy half (and while this is a good option to get a quick kick away, I am not convinced about his quality there)

I guess the critical decision is therefore half and loose forward, with the two main candidates for each sport being Brough and Lomax and O’Loughlin and Sinfield

In the first half of the year I would have gone for Brough and O’Loughlin without doubt but Lomax’s form is such that I would certainly consider playing Lomax and Sinfield – with Lomax the main distributor, Widdop a running half and Sinfield kicking

If we were to go with Brough and O’Loughlin, Brough takes the organisation and kicking duties while O’Loughlin would perform his Wigan role of high work rate complemented by some creative passing

The mistake would be to go in without a recognised and quality field kicker as this is where England have suffered in the past

Easy solution.. Bring in Lomaskell. You can't play Batman without Robin!

In my option he’s average with a world class kicking game

I'm sure he's gutted.

Very impressed with Jonny Lomax, and after initially being reluctant, i agree he should be in the running. We've a World Cup coming up in a few years, so really, whether he's ready or not now shouldnt make a difference. Put him in, and get him some international experience ready for then.

I thought Gaskell had a great game at stand-off too. He's definitely one to watch.

I echo the sentiment that we need a kicking game.

Assuming Widdop is first choice 6 and he doesn't have said kicking game, then pick someone who has at 7 and put Lomax on the bench. He can cover many back positions as well as hooker and 13.

If saints have 2 more good games this season, will Gaskell be the name on everyones lips? After all, he's got the kicking game we all crave?

Too soon. As several have suggested, play Brough and have Lomax as interchange.

We need to calm down with some of these youngsters. We often put too much pressure on them, ket him develop and if he is still doing well next season then let's talk about him for honours. I am ok with him getting into the squad, or maybe just being used with the Knights.

He has only played in 45 SL games, with only 21 of these at halfback. I don't think he has done enough to overtake the likes of Brough, or even Myler for that matter (a player who has scored more tries, has made more assists, and has made more clean breaks than any other half in the SL - yet gets dismissed as simply being a support player. Lomax's defence is better though).

Another year and then I'd play him if he continues to impress.

I'm not Brough's biggest fan, but he is currently playing in a struggling team, and I do agree that we need a good kicking game for a change, so I'd be happy if he was given his chance (apart form the fact he has previously captained Scotland, but that's a seperate issue!).

Myler doesn't strike me as playing a normal scrum half role, to be honest.
I don't think i've seen loads of warrington, but when I have, rather than standing at 1st receiver and organising from there Myler seems to do a lot of his good work running wider.
Am I wrong? I haven't made an effort to watch him in particular and there's normally quite a lot going on when Wire are playing.

This season he has developed his game and is now much more of a traditional 7. He often plays at first receiver, with him and Briers alternating (pretty standard for 6&7's these days to be fair). His passing this year has improved out of sight, his long passing is as slick as anything (certainly slicker than any long passing we saw for England last year) and he has developed a really impressive short ball game. See the Saints game at the HJ as an example, when he stands up two Saints players including Graham to set up Wood's try.

He does still play out wide quite often, as he has the pace to do real damage, but he has certainly improved many of his 'traditional' scrum half duties.

However, Myler still needs more playmakers round him, so it would depend on other team selections, and he has no long kicking game to speak of. His short kicking game can be very good though.

The best thing to happen in Myler's career was getting dropped for the Challenge Cup Final. People may say that he is finding it easy playing in a good team, but that is ignoring the fact that his contribution has really played a big part in us becoming a brilliant attacking team.

I'm not saying he should be 7 for England, but he certainly shouldn't be written off either.

Myler the class of english 7's in superleague at the moment. Been outstanding all season.