No seriously, why not. Why cant Brough play for the Exiles if he is now scottish?

because Brough is not exiled away from his home

I agree, the Exiles concept may have had some mileage in it a few years ago when the quality of the overseas players was higher. Playing against the likes of Buderus, Trent Barrett, Jamie Lyon etc would have been exciting, but when the Exiles are the likes of Heath L'Estrange, whilst still good players, they don't have anywhere near the same draw.

I'd rather we attempt to develop the likes of France & Wales with a mid-season 5 Nations. I know England would win, and easily in many cases, but give the French a consistent challenge, year after year, then they'd undoubtably improve to the point where they could give England a game, especially in France.

Think selections should be dependant on the purpose of this game: is it a chance to get a possible team together that could play in the World Cup, or should we be using this to look at other people?

I'm not sure on the criticism re: Roby's selection? He will be our hooker at the World Cup, so he should play in this game. From a saints POV I don't want him to play, but from an England POV he should play so you cannot say that I am biased purely because he is a saints player.

The criticism should be over Burrow's selection considering he is not good enough to play hooker for England. I'd have picked Lunt and put him on the bench instead of Burrow.

At least McNamara hasn't gone with Wilkin, thank god! Although JJB has slipped through, again, somehow.

JJB's selection is purely based on being a Rhino. He is the definition of average, and on top of that he's an absolute penalty machine. He's so lazy in the ruck. If he played for anyone else he still wouldn't stand out, he'd just be another player.

I can't remember the last time someone said "Jones-Buchanan was one of the best players on the pitch today".

Not one to spoil a good rant with facts but...

JJB with 11 is behind the following players in the penalty department O'loughlin (15) , Westwood (14) Ferres (14) farrell (13)

Hes also way way down near the bottom in terms of Errors (not even in the top 50 in the league on SL site)

He's also 7th on the top tacklers list for the season with 522


So hes not really a penalty machine, doesn't make many errors, and is a very good tackling with a great engine.



But having said all that he wouldnt be in my England team to face the Exiles, just don't like nonesense spouted for the sake of it.

Is there a stat for 'poor defensive read' as I'm sure he would be a record breaker in that.

As much as I try, I can't get excited by international RL while we have McNamara as the England coach. With a decent coach in place we'd have a decent shot at this year's WC. As it stands he's going to go for a Sinfield and Chase HB pairing which we've already seen doesn't work, it starves our biggest attacking threat in Tomkins from getting any quality ball.

Absolute nonsense, Sinfield and Chase went OK last time around and we have a better squad than we did for the 4Nations in 2011 and we went pretty well in that too.

As a RL fan i get excited at any international involving GB/England and NZ/Australia, to say your not bothered because of the coach seems a bit ridiculous to me, but it seems thats how petty a lot of RL supporters are and why International RL isnt as big as it should be.

when the WC actually comes round I suspect that he will try all the combos at halfback of Sinfield, Chase and Widdop in the group matches, and see which works best.

Same for the forwards. Everyone will probably get a chance against either Ireland and Fiji and the best combinations will stand out. Lets not forget we will get injuries too, so it is nigh on impossible to work out which players will run out at Old Trafford for the final.

I am not really inspired by McNamara as coach; but we should at least give him a chance to fail at his objective before writing him off as a failure.

Brian McDermott said it in his interview after the Hull game. Statistically he was the best forward on the pitch from either team.

Sinfield or O'laughlin are the best 2 13's in the game at the minute both with big game experience, Get rid of Chase as he is a Kiwi, halves should be Myler and Brown, two great half backs. Morley is still a great go forward player but bring in someone younger. Atkins, Goulding or even Hall (kr) for the centres.

Yeh cos I'm sure Cronk, Thurston etc will "go ok" come the World Cup won't they! We don't play to any sort of structure and it was all down to the half back combination. Chase is too off the cuff and Sinfield is too slow to be an international 6. If we are to have any chance then England need to play to a similar style as Wigan where Tomkins is brought in to the attacking line as a 3rd pivot.

I am an England fan and I go to games but it is disheartening to see some of the selections that are made. Wev got some world class forwards and and exciting back line, particularly once we get the NRL-based players involved, but I think ultimately it is going to be our halves that let us down.

You have judged him on a couple of games, clearly.

Do you not factor in that it takes 3 defenders to put him down and therefore by default he creates gaps if he can get a quick play the balls??

It's not *all* down to the half-back combination. A fair bit of it has got to be coaching/training. (Though I agree we've seen nothing to suggest Sinfield/Chase can combine effectively and Sinfield/Brough, Sinfield/Widdop or Brough/Widdop would all be more effective combinations.

The other thing worth mentioning is that Cameron Smith is in a different class as an organising acting-half
than Roby. Roby is excellent in his way, but Smith gets defences on the back foot and sets Australia's play more than Thurston or Cronk and if Roby can't do that then there's even more pressure and less space for our halves.

I think people are just focusing on the half back because it seems to be the 'in' thing to do, what we have to remember is Australia are a far better squad with better players in most of the positions. However we can win the WC, we only have to beat Australia once out of a probable two games, we've shown we can do that on occasion and NZ dont ever seem to be a problem when we play them on home turf. And whatever people seem to think just putting Brough in because hes had a good first half of the season will not win us a WC, good preparation and good Squad that knows each others plays and gell together can.

But as Ive said a few times I genuinely get the feeling people want to see England faik so they can get some kind of bragging rights and say I told you so.

Yeh I definitely agree it's down to the coaching as well. FWIW Widdop and Brough would have been my first choice HB pairing for the WC. I think Widdop/Chase could work if Chase can be disciplined enough to play to a structure and pick and choose when he plays what he sees.

Of course all the Rhinos players are average and shouldn't be in. Any unbiased fair minded fan would agree. Makes me wonder why the fantastic players in all the other teams can't stop them winning championships.

Last season they were on form. We will see how you do this season.

We've won more games this season than the same time last year I believe.

So what do we think of the Exiles squad:

Travis Burns (Hull Kingston Rovers), Chris Bailey (London Broncos), Brett Delaney (Leeds Rhinos), Michael Dobson (Hull Kingston Rovers), Rhys Hanbury (Widnes Vikings), Harrison Hansen (Wigan Warriors), Brett Hodgson (Warrington Wolves), Lance Hohaia (St Helens), Kylie Leuluai (Leeds Rhinos), Steve Menzies (Catalans Dragons), Joel Monaghan (Warrington Wolves), Michael Monaghan (Warrington Wolves, Australia), Joel Moon (Leeds Rhinos), Mickey Paea (Hull Kingston Rovers), Tony Puletua (St Helens), Pat Richards (Wigan Warriors), Iosia Soliola (St Helens), Zeb Taia (Catalan Dragons), Trent Waterhouse (Warrington Wolves)

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22780690[/url

What do you reckon the final team will be?

I'll go with:

Hodgson
Joel Monaghan
Soliola/Taia??
Moon
Richards
Burns/Lance
Dobson
Kylie
M Monaghan
Puletua
Hanson
Menzies
Waterhouse

Paea
Soliola/Taia
Hanbury/Lance
Bailey

Its the weakest Exiles squad so far IMO.

harrison hansen makes my head hurt

cudjoe and ferres the centre for england on friday?

If Ferres is centre it's more proof MacNamara is clueless

Apathy might stem from everyone bar McNamara thinking the squad is about the name rather than form

Ellis, Roby, Morley (even as a Wire fan that baffles me) have been injured so how can anyone say they've played their way into the squad?

JJB, no
Burrow, no

Westwood just makes it but his form this season hasn't been the best.