From what I've seen of him he can finish tries and has plenty of pace. It's the last sentence that worries me, because we need backs that can defend. He's still young as you say and he will learn. Let's hope he has a strong second half of the season and can put his hand up for Young player of the year.

but the reality is,if he wanted to,he can still play for australia if he wants....a la' jarrod hayne with NSW,australia,FIJI,NSW and australia...again

I can't really argue with the squad to be honest. It looks pretty solid. Im not a fan of O’Loughlin but he is in good form so he deserves his chance.

Mcguire is the only one im not sure about. I still think pryce has a few more tricks up his sleeve. I feel sorry for Briscoe. He was solid in the quad nations but it will be good to see if Widdop lives up to the hype. I wouldn't have minded seeing Steve Snitch in there. He has carried the 2nd row at Cas at times this season before Tuson signed and while the rest have been injured and Jones has been playing hooker etc.

Mcguire is the form halfback in the competition, he constantly shines for Leeds in the big games and particularly in grand finals, he was also right up there in the world cup semi final
despite the gnashing of teeth and excitement that he didnt beat the australians on his own at the JJB last year he should be starting for england and if he didnt play for Leeds a lot more people would see that

Steve Snitch

I understand wanting to have a look at Widdop but all this talk of being better than other British fulback is garbage. He has not done anything special in his two games, a good prospect but if he was not playing in the NRL he would have got nowhere near the squad.

I was more concerned about him trying to beat England on his own that day.

He hasn't looked a mug recently, which is one up on Briscoe/Tansey/Wellens/Mathers . . . .

Thats exactly why I would go with Atkins over Bridge.

Atkins has size and pace and IMO is 1 for the future. Bridge however well he's playing will never cut it at International Level.

Bridge is twice the player Atkins will EVER be.
Atkins is a pretty decent athlete who would make a decent winger, im happy with him in the Warrington team but as a centre he's not fit to lace Bridge's boots.
If we're going exclusively for size we might as well put Karl Pryce there.. exactly.

He's played two games that's all. Briscoe has been out of sorts this season but the other three have been pretty consistent.

He's a strong tackler, you don't often see him get pushed off a tackle, but he does sometimes have a tendancy to leave his winger unmarked. That said this is often because he has been left exposed, and in recent weeks he seems to have improved in this area. He has also looked alot more assured under kicks in recent weeks.

Besides, the only way he sort out his faults is by playing in the big games. And despite his faults he is a very dangerous attacking player with bags of speed and strength. Some of the tries he has scored for Hull have been genuine world class efforts. He also seems to win more penalties than any other player I've seen because he is so hard to pull down and put on his back.

He was born in England.

I sincerely doubt whether he would ever be good enough to wear the Green and Gold even if he had been born in Australia.

Did St Helens need to select England's star playmaker the week before a test match, against a [ipart-time team[/i? With all due respect to Barrow, did Saints [ireally[/i need him to ensure victory? Its the latest example of a lack of attention to elite player welfare. While England will beat France, the lack of centralised player management, will unfortunately be, yet again, the real and ignored reason why England will lose the 4N (barring a miracle).

Its funny how much stick Mcguire gets for a 10 point loss against the Aussies. Yet how much praise Eastmond and Tomkins get for a 30 point loss in a final.

a slight bit of envy and revisionism me thinks

Cant agree with this comment at all. Saints pay Eastmonds wages therefore Saints are entitled to play him whenever they like. What if they had rested him on Englands say so and then Saints had lost?? You can just imagine the problems that would have caused! Lets not kid ourselves either, the reason we lose against Australia & NZ is not because we don't rest players but solely because we dont have the resources Australia do when it comes to RL and cant consistantly produce the calibre of players they do.

Im glad Joel Tomkins and Nick Scruton have been picked in the sqaud they have been brilliant this season.

Which try was that? not saying it didnt happen but i certainly cant remember it, i can remember his side being by far our best defensivley (until he came off, then it fell apart) and him stopping a couple of tries pretty much on his own.

Your not one of the leeds fan that was booing in the final are you? (before kick off i might add).

French squad, ill just stick it in here so it can be easily compared to the England squad.

Andrew Bentley : Saint Estève - XIII Catalan
Thomas Bosc : Dragons Catalans
Remy Casty : Dragons Catalans
Vincent Duport : Toulouse Olympique
Olivier Elima : Dragons Catalans (capitaine)
Jamal Fakir : Dagons Catalans
Mathieu Griffi : Toulouse Olympique
David Ferriol : Dragons Catalans
Tony Gigot : Dragons Catalans
Cyril Gossard : Dragons Catalans
Grégory Mounis : Dragons Catalans
Dimitri Pelo : Dragons Catalans
Florian Quintilla : Lézignan-Corbières
Sébastien Raguin : Dragons Catalans
Mickael Simon : Saint Estève - XIII Catalan
Cyril Stacul : Dragons Catalans
Julien Touxagas : Dragons Catalans
Mickael Tribillac : Lézignan Corbières
Frédéric Vaccari : Dragons Catalans
Constant Villegas : Toulouse Olympique

I remember which one it was, dunno if Shenton was at fault.
The second bit's a bit of a myth, we had in reality lost the game before he went off after conceeding a few in the minutes leading up to it

it was the try that we conceded to let the aussies in front for the second time
the game was gone from there, you could see the confidence drain from our side and build in theirs as it was the second time the team had worked so hard to get in front and conceded a soft try straight away

i didnt boo the team before the final, Ive seen enough pathetic england performances to know that this team needed support, not fans who go to cheer their own clubs players and score points off other clubs players and fans, I guess you are one of them

Chris Bridge- Not Good Enough
Tom Briscoe- Not Good Enough
Sam Burgess- Good player
Kyle Eastmond- Good player
Gareth Ellis- Average int. player
James Graham- Average int. player
Ryan Hall- Not Good Enough but best we have, depressing.
Sean O’Loughlin- Average not international standard
Danny McGuire- Inconsistent
Adrian Morley- Too old
Jamie Peacock- Past it
James Roby- Good player
Nick Scruton- Unproven
Michael Shenton- Not Good Enough
Kevin Sinfield- Not Good Enough internationally
Joel Tomkins- Unproven
Sam Tomkins- Overrated
Ben Westwood- Poor player
Gareth Widdop- Unproven

=#8000FFI hope you're trolling

the best second rower in the world is only average? Shenton & Hall aren't good enough, yet they both kept the Aussies down the left quiet (along with Ellis).

=#8040BFIf inglis wanted to run through shenton, bridge, ellis etc he could do and with ease. We aren't good enough we have 1/2 players who could make it onto australia's bench and that's all

Other than one who seems on a different planet to everyone else, and bar a little bit of fine-tuning round the edges from a few others, that looks like a pretty universal thumbs-up for the team from the jury on here.

That must be the first time I have seen that in many a year.

Not a bad start for a coach who was almost universally panned when he was appointed?