This. Calling for him to be sacked because he didn't pick a couple of Wigan players (who I would have picked by the way) is a bit of a knee-jerk.

If this question was asked after two terrible performances against the exiles, then I might entertain it, but you want to sack a coach based on his squad selection?!? Without even waiting until they have played first?



Mind boggling...

He's dog turd, utterly clueless.

Form in SL is part of the jigsaw, but frankly isn't enough to help McNamara or anyone else pick a side that is capable of taking on Australia. In that respect England are so weak that McNamara will always have to pick some players who are capable of big-game performances even if they're not in the best of form (e.g. Roby to pick a name). Mal Meninga does the same for Queensland with some players, and Ricky Stuart even more so for NSW.

From what I've seen - and not dissing the lad who I hope does become genuine class - Goulding is an OK centre who is rightly making hay in a very dominant team. Charnley OTOH I think has overtaken Briscoe. That's the sort of judgement call the England coach has to be able to make - identify which players in the best side are really contributing to their strength, and which are more or less going along for the ride.

The main selection question mark for me, looking forward to next year (and hoping to hell the likes of Tomkins and Burgess are fit) is halfback. An in-form and confident Brough with Widdopp would be my pick, but McNamara seems to have decided that Sinfield will be the 6 - presumably for his kicking and general sense of control, which so many of our supposed 'playmakers' almost entirely lack. Whilst I can see McNamara's logic, I'd prefer he took a risk and went with halfbacks who ate least might have the capability to unlock a defence.

Happily I'm not the coach, because English RL supporters tend to far too easily hammer the coach for selections (generally not picking somebody from their team) and not taking into account the huge gulf in class they are desperately trying to cross by selecting the majority of their players from SL to play against generally far superior opposition.

Having a bad reputation on the Wigan forum is like a badge of honour, such are the number of complete ends of a bell on there. Not all of them though, some of this forums best posters are Wiganers. Alas, so are the worst.

As for McNamara - no real issue with his squad but his insistence on picking actual real proper Australians and New Zealanders just because it's in the rules is intensely annoying. That said, he's got a mortgage to pay and it does give him a better chance of keeping his job. If that's his priority, so be it. Not sure if its the best for GB RL though.

The Exiles games are really 'exhibition' games, against a contrived opposition. Similarly, the International series at the end of the season is not going to offer the same challenge or prestige as beating the Aussies or Kiwis. We should therefore be using the international games this year to experiment with the England side, finding new and exciting combinations of players, and not using it as an excuse to stroke the egos of the same old faces, picked on name and reputation.

We had nothing to lose this year; fans wouldn't mind being beaten by the Exiles if they got to see a good young team developing a rapport with one another, and to be perfectly honest, given the quality of European opposition, we would struggle to lose the Autumn series. But no, McNamara didn't want to upset the old guard, and so our preparations for next year's World Cup consist of fielding players who will be well into their thirties by the time it rolls around.

I consider it a sort of endorsement.

BrisbaneRhino's post was by far the best one I've seen on this subject.

look at it logically there is a difference between being in form against sl opposition but when you play the aussies you need a team that can match them and go toe to toe with them heres the aussie team from last year and see if any players being mentioned outside of what has been picked would match up.

fb - billy slater vs sam tomkins (experience wins with billy but sam wont be far off!)
wing - akuila uate vs ryan hall (id give this one to hall!)
ctr - inglis vs cudjoe (massive miss match!)
ctr - lawrence vs atkins (close)
wing - yow yeh vs charnley (yow yeh hands down)
so - cherry evans vs brough (daly is young but skillfull, brough experienced and i think edges)
sh - thurston vs chase (no where near each other)
prop - gallen vs jp (in form at the moment gallen by a mile but on there day evens)
hooker - cameron smith vs roby (good matching at the moment but smith takes it)
prop - scott vs carvell (not seen alot of scott so couldnt really comment)
sr - t-rex vs hock (two intimedating forwards good match up)
sr - thaiday vs tickle (thaday hands down)
lf - watmough vs o'loughlin (sorry wigan fans but watmough wins this one for me)

now looking through there would some of the players that are being thrown around thats not made the exiles squad stand up say

hill vs gallen??
goulding vs inglis??
macillorum vs smith???


its not as simple as saying this person is doing well in sl there are other factors in the selection

Cracking post.

I voted for him to be sacked, but not for squad selection, but for being hopeless in general.
Also Ingless vs any centre is a miss match!

the only centre that may get close to inglis is switching atkins there

plus westwood may be a better match for thaiday

Bar injury westwood makes team for me. Love him internationally. Does my head in agaist wigan though lol!

Id still play goulding with charnley good partnership and like you say mark inglis with atkins.

Good post wolfinwidnes. And let's not forget that if we were to play the Aussies we'd have our Australian-based players to choose from as well - S. Burgess, Graham, Ellis, Widdop, Reed, Heighington?, Luke Burgess?

Yes I was goin on current squad for exiles but I think england are in better shape now than we have been for a long time!

Love him or hate him I think he has put good steps in place for the future!

1- the knights is a good concept if done correctly.
2- the squad have regular meetings now.
3- the exiles concept was macnamaras.

He certainly is in the right place at the right time and the exiles is a good idea. I just dont think he a good enough coach, of course would love to be proven wrong and him win a series

You can't say that! 'Lockers' is the world's best forward, even Michael Maguire said so!

Given that our best forwards are currently playing in the NRL and not available for this game which is in my unhumble opinion a waste of time just there to keep certain elements of the media happy, why worry? If our squad for the WC looks like the one for the Exiles game, then I'll start complaining.

fb - billy slater vs sam tomkins (experience wins with billy but sam wont be far off!)
wing - akuila uate vs ryan hall (id give this one to hall!)
ctr - inglis vs atkins (close match as its gonna get)
ctr - lawrence vs reed (reed edges it)
wing - yow yeh vs charnley (yow yeh hands down)
so - cherry evans vs brough (daly is young but skillfull, brough experienced and i think edges)
sh - thurston vs widdop (closer match)
prop - gallen vs jp (in form at the moment gallen by a mile but on there day evens)
hooker - cameron smith vs roby (good matching at the moment but smith takes it)
prop - scott vs l burgess (looking better than sam for me
sr - t-rex vs hock (two intimedating forwards good match up)
sr - thaiday vs westwood (again 2 aggresive forwards good battlr)
lf - watmough ellis (ellis edges it)

Edited to includr nrl and injured and we are in good shape

can tell you dont like wigan, luke burgess over mossop? do you even watch the nrl? also ellis over o'loughlin? dont be stupid yeah ellis is a work horse so is o'loughlin and has better hands than ellis.

Should never have been given the job in the first place.

Can still seem him around, even after WC 2013, which is depressing

Quite the opposite I am taking club bias out of it I watch souths whenever they play on tv and luke burgess has been immense the only oversight I may of made was jammer but sorry I know I upset all wigan fans when I dont include precious o'loughlin but ellis is better

The bottom line is if they play for the incomparable Wigan and they qualify they should be first choice for England.
McNamara should be sacked and someone put in plcae who recognises that England will never be capable of competing until the team is packed with Wigan players, all of whom are infinitely better than anyone in the world.

Seriously though Wolf, I think you're initial analysis was excellent.

I wouldn't pick Ellis at loose admittedly, but jeez calm down. Has captain fantastic won player of the year for an NRL team 3 years in a row?

Seriously bro, stay off that crack pipe.