We were missing quite a few ourselves.

Not bad! Do we know how ticket sales for the other games are doing?

I think your seventeen are our best call however, I would start Chris Hill and Bench Taylor and swop Sam B around with Ferris, to put Sam Loose Forward! Four of that team have just played in the qualifiers

we do have other options should this team not perform! Bateman might be a little light for an international pack however, he does have some Bottle

Swap Sarginson and Watkins too I think as they plan 4 and 3 respectively.

It was close to a full house when we played the Kiwis a few seasons back and we beat them

Hodgson is the best hooker we have, so he was always going to start. Clarke is the best impact we have with his dummy half running, the perfect foil for hodgson if needed. Simple decision for wane, purely on rugby rather than shoehorning a player in that wouldn't fit based on awards. I'm not sure 3 hookers are needed in the squad.

If either hodgson or clarke don't perform well enough, they'll be axed going forward and if houghton maintains form he'll be prioritized.

Disgrace that Aussies like Sarginson are selected ahead of English born players.

But Daniel Sarginson is obviously genetically superior because of his Australian ancestry. He nevertheless qualifies for England because of extended residence in the former penile colony of Hemel Hempstead.

Not like you to be funny....

Now, now, Adolf.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/37678096 Burgess to captain England. Good move if you ask me, anything to extract the absolute maximum out of him, we will need it.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/37678096 Burgess to captain England. Good move if you ask me, anything to extract the absolute maximum out of him, we will need it.

His performances - notably his butter fingers - visibly suffered when trying to carry the weight of the burden that was a pathetic South Sydney team this year.

Is it damaging to our sport that a code-hopper, who has not played for this side since 2013 - can waltz back in on his return to the sport and captain the team? I suppose the wider media will start talking about it, at least.

Really? How?

Its either the code hopper, or the ear biter.

Can't be any more damaging than it was to Union, shoehorning him into the England team after less than a year in the sport then making him the scapegoat for their horrible World Cup on home soil.

But then is it not damning to the other code that he can pitch up, never having played the sport before, and get in their England team?

Why would not playing since 2013 exclude him from Captaincy?
He's a club captain, a cup winning club captain at that, and he is available to be picked, and is picked. I'd say that puts him in a good position.

His competition was Hill and Graham. I wouldn't have been offended with either of those but I think Burgess is much more media savvy and is a respected player among his peers. So he get's my vote.
I couldn't care less where he played the year before last. It's not like he's missed a lot of games for England since 2013. 7 I think.

Ward in for Ferres - happy with Ferres being out, but Ward? Really?

Agree and he plays 80 minutes, so that a bonus especially as Captain. Personally I think he'll make an excellent England Captain.

Would it be damaging to RU if we manage to win the 4 Nations with pictures of Burgess lifting the trophy as captain?

Surely not? Isn't he just back from an ACL tear after a year about and played about half a game against a championship side?

Ward is probably only in Ferres place because he was named in the initial squad for god only knows why.
The other question is who else is there to bring in who isn't already on holiday ?

I wonder if Wayne gave Gaz Ellis a call. Let's be honest though, Ward will only play against France and possibly Scotland, barring injuries. It'll be a good experience for him. The other contenders would probably have been Jack Hughes and Mike McMeeken, but apart from that, not many realistic options.

Wards a player people expect to go on and have a long England career. He's probably not quite ready at the moment due to his lack of games after injury but he's unlikely to play in the main games.

I feel a bit for Jack Hughes who's had a good season but long term Wards the better bet to get a decent number of caps.