Yes, but Canterbury have done that ploy to death now, and opposing teams are wise to it.

Hope he doesn't, its painfully slow and has resulted in the Bulldogs attack been awful this year.

It worked really well for half a season, but as soon as clubs started to mark him like a halfback it went to dust, as he isn't quick enough to change the play once its in motion. The other downside for the Dogs is that it really hid how awful their halfbacks were (Hodkinson, Reynolds and now Mbye).

Having said that, if its not overused, it could work very well (e.g. one play every second or third set).

As an aside, I don't think Bennett will see this competition as a failure even if we lose badly to Australia. His aim is to prepare us for the World Cup next year. This competition has introduced him to most of the available players, and given him the chance to see who thrives and who simply isn't good enough at this level. I expect we'll see a number of changes for next year, particularly if we don't do well against Australia (including a revival of Aussiegate).

On the interview side, Bennett is apparently a very good public speaker - he used to make a mint out of giving motivational talks to businesses when he was at the Broncos previously, mostly based off his books. Given that he doesn't want to do them for England, it might be better to just skip him entirely and let Betts do all the talking.

You were going so well up to this point.

Marge Simpson's sister?

No thanks.

Paul Anderson? Paul Sculthorpe? There's enough in the entourage to choose from.

A thick sounding Lancastrian or a thick sounding Yorkshireman talking in cliches. Give me Bennett any day. Ah, yeh, nah, yeh, mate.

England: J Lomax (St Helens); J McGillvary (Huddersfield), K Watkins (Leeds), M Percival (St Helens), R Hall (Leeds); G Widdop (St George Illawarra), K Brown (Widnes); C Hill (Warrington), J Hodgson (Canberra), J Graham (Canterbury Bulldogs), E Whitehead (Canberra), J Bateman (Wigan), S Burgess (South Sydney, capt). Subs: D Clark (Warrington), T Burgess (South Sydney), G Burgess (South Sydney), M Cooper (St George Illawarra).

Kevin Brown at scrum half. Thoughts??

Is this confirmed? On the photographs of today's captain's run, Gale and Widdop are both there.

If Brown does play, three different half back combinations in three games doesn't give anyone the chance to build the understanding half backs need to combine effectively.
I think Bennett needs to decide the best half back combination (whoever it may be) and play them consistently unless we suffer injuries.
However, I'm pleased for Brown who I have always liked watching as a player.
Overall, I'm not sold on Bennett and his boring style of rugby.

So Williams having had the best performance from an English half so far (albeit not brilliant) does him no favours at all?

Clearly WB is going to say, it's all about the World Cup.

And only one Wiganer in the side!

I think that you can have a go at Bennet's style in front of the camera but, his coaching ability is beyond question.
If the players take on board how he wants them to play, he will have us beating the Aussies, maybe not tomorrow but, he can get this England team to the next level.

I think Bennett has run into an issue that he's probably not had to deal with to such an extent in his career so far - the lack of quality halves. I don't think it's such a big surprise that Kevin Brown is in there. In one of his interviews before the New Zealand game he was asked about picking Gale ahead of Williams and he said that halfback is a specialist position, clearly suggesting he saw Williams as a stand off only. Quite a few Super League clubs now play split halves, so the role might not be as specialised as Bennett is used to, but that's obviously how he's going about it. It seems likely that Widdop and Williams were his stand off options and Gale and Brown his scrum halves. Given that Gale has been a massive disappointment it's not a surprise that Brown is in the squad.

If he wants to bring in Brown at scrum half it would be a pretty big risk to then pair him with Williams, given both of them lack a decent long kicking game. I don't think he'd leave Widdop out for such an important game; he obviously sees him as the best of the four. I'd imagine Widdop and Brown will be the halves.

It's easy to say Bennett should pick his best halfback combination, but our halves have so many flaws and varying strengths that I don't think you can blame him for not knowing. Widdop is the player he knows the most about and he's probably his number 1 choice. I'd say Williams is the 2nd best but he's clearly not keen on pairing them because he sees them both as 6's (whereas McNamara was obviously more willing to use split halves with less of a clearly defined role as he picked Williams at 7 for 2 games). Few seemed to argue with Gale being picked, yet there were also plenty saying Brown's impressive cameo against France should get him in the side. I honestly think it's a very difficult choice to pick out our halves.

However, in my opinion it would be beneficial to get Williams playing at this level right now and gaining valuable experience. He's the best halfback prospect we've had in years but I don't see how he can improve at this level without playing it.

Anyone in SE without a ticket - get along tomorrow you can pay at the gate.

Teams in and he's gone with Brown and Widdop at HB. Williams on the bench and no Gale or Clark.

Quite left field to introduce Brown at this stage.

That's 3 different halfback combinations in 3 games, needs to be some continuity, to drop the best player last week to the bench and replace with a player who has hardly played (only in the French friendly?) seems bizarre.

I hope I'm wrong, but not greatly confident with Brown and Widdop.

No problem with the Clarke decision ad Hodgy can play the 80, although looks like Williams might do a spell there.

I'd say it's pretty clear that Bennett is using this 4 Nations tournament to build an idea of which direction he'll go with the halves for the World Cup.

The funny thing is that it's also Australia 3rd different HB combination of the tournament. Difference is they make their's work each other.

Bennet seems to have gone for the Aussie style selection, if you have not performed well enough your out simple as. No point brown being in the squad if he won't drop players who have not produced the goods. Gale for all the cas fans proclaiming him the best half back in the country has been poor, Williams has been ok but obviously not done enough, however Lomax has been and is poop and still gets picked.

i just hope by the time the World Cup comes around there are more options at halfback. I dread to think what will happen if we're still resorting to picking the likes of Pinhead.

Nothing wrong with that from Watkins. Wasn't late and hit the hip of Cronk not the "standing leg" like Hicks said.

Brown playing well so far, rubbish kicking game though from both half backs.

Aussies as usual give it but can't take it. No way was that a penalty from Watkins. Time we went for an early 90's response and got stuck into em. Not condoning violence, but I am

We need a bit of c*nt in us.... if Cronk wants to get up pushing, I've no issues if Watkins gets 10 for giving him a dig.... don' be in awe of them.

Just get Bateman a bit angry, he's the only one on the pitch who would do anything.

Listening to the game on five live you can hear the crowd and there seems to be a great atmosphere in the stadium but on arriving home I have put BBC one on and the crowd noise is virtually zero making it Seem as though there is no atmosphere