Hall and Burgess with Briscoe in reserve will be our wingers and I'm more than happy with that.

Don't see why people still have the problem with people from other countries representing England. Australia an NZ have been doing it for years.

It's because we get the sloppy 2nds

Anyone who's good enough to play for England and qualifies to do so on whatever grounds that is, should get picked no matter what. It's sport - winning is the aim.

Justin Carney though? Good player, probably not good enough to get in the England team. Now if it was Grant Millington who threw his hat into the ring...

Yep, completely agree. Millington is the type of player the Sky pundits would be salivating over if he was British.

Rangi Chase and Chris Heighinton proved that we might as well use and develop our own talent rather than make pathetic excuses to bring in some average overseas plodder who A) played in the NRL a handful of times or B) already played for another national side.

The "win at all cost" attitude is short term and probably very weak. And unfortunately the people at the top are very weak minded.

Carney not over Hall, Burgess or Briscoe.

Adam Cuthbertson however should be in the squad .

not for me, he's Australian, no amount of "living here" will ever make it right

see Rangi Chase

If he qualifies, he should be considered. But, I don't think he should be selected ahead of Hall, Burgess, Briscoe, Manfredi, Lineham, or McGilvery.

Steady on...

2 of those don't play for the feeder clubs for England, tut tut!

Hall, Briscoe, Burgess, Lineham, Makinson, McGilvary, Charnley if he finds his form would all be in front of Carney for me.

As for people saying that we should consider it as Australia and New Zealand do, that's because the players are good enough to get into the team. If someone like Daly Cherry-Evans said he would then i'd have no problems with it. He's good enough to improve the team and one of his parents is English.

RL fans are so precious about this its not funny. RU has for a long time had 'naturalised' players swapping nationality and nobody blinks. The England cricket team is full of South Africans.

I also completely disagree about 'win at all costs' being a problem - if anything SL and the RFL should do far more to get any edge they can - SL rules should be fought for, as with any other advantage rather than just bowing to the "NRL is best" tosh for example. Why give the best teams in the world an extra advantage? Again, an area where RU has shown it will sacrifice spectacle for competitiveness by backing northern hemisphere demands for rules that help negate the massive disadvantage they have in the backs against NZ and Australia.

As an aside I can't see Carney being anywhere near good enough. Heighington would have been OK if used right but wasn't all that. Chase was an experiment that didn't work. I hope McNamara has his feelers out constantly to see if any decent NRL players who qualify might be interested. So long as they do it for the right reasons and qualify by legitimate reasons I'm happy.

If Justin Carney has an Irish grandparent then he should be allowed to play for Ireland, alongside goal kicking and field kicking freak Paddy Richards.

But he cannot hope to be selected for England ahead of Leeds' Ryan Hall, or soon to be Sydney Rooster's Joseph Burgess, or even Wigan's Dominic Manfredi.

Surely shome misktake.... you mean Patrick.

i'm not precious about it
i just prefer my national side to contain English players not Australians or New Zealanders

Carney is a very good winger in his own right no doubt however,we are hardly struggling in that area.Hall,Burgess,Briscoe and Makinson are in front of him for sure imo and we also have two extremely talented young lads in Lineham and Manfredi who will be soon knocking on the door if they aren't already.

If someone wants to represent England and genuinely qualifies, then they should be considered.

I do not think McNamara should be trawling the NRL looking for anyone to beg who qualifies to swap sides, but if someone steps forward and genuinely wants to play, then they should not be denied.

However, I don't think him good enough for internationals. His physicality will be dealt with a lot easier by the massive international Wingers from the southern hemisphere and once that's been negated, he's not giving us a lot.

There was a very long thread years ago about the Catalans winger, Justin (?) Murphy. Lived in France for years, played all his rugby there, married to a French gal, kids went to a French speaking school, maybe even got French citizenship, but because he was born in Aus (and was scoring a lot of tries), people didn't want him to play for France (against England).

English jobs for English people!!!!

People say, the England cricket team's full of South Africans. Well,I don't know about youse guys, but I don't like that either. In fact, in some probably illogical way, I feel much more strongly about it in cricket than in rugby.

Carney wouldn't offer anything at international level. He got a bad injury, didn't he, at the end of his time in the NRL? But I don't remember him really tearing up a lot of trees even before that. He was no Semi Radradra, that's for sure.

The main factor that should prevent him playing for England is that is isn't good enough. He does the odd decent run but his defence and positional play is awful. Then there's his discipline, no thanks.

49 tries in 50 appearances puts him along side Lineham (40 tries/55 appearances) Makinson (67 tries/104 appearances) and Burgess (37 tries/41 appearances)

His positional play and defence have improved under Powell. That said even as a Cas fan there are other players in the league ahead of him.

I don't think McNamara is 'trawling' at all. As far as anyone can tell he's just just letting it be known that he'll talk to any England-qualified players. There are also enough English players in the NRL to spread the word anyway.

We know he talked to Hodkinson and DCE (that would have been a real coup) and no doubt others as well. He also selected Widdopp really early in order to keep him from the potential lure of Australia etc. In fact Widdopp and Reed alone are enough to justify what he's done.

I might fault McNamara for a lot of things, but trying to improve the side he coaches by seeing if he can widen the talent pool is something he should be applauded for.

Reed and Widdop are English though they were born in England.

that's not the same as some born and bred Australian or New Zealander deciding halfway through his career that because he isn't good enough to represent his country he will "choose" another country.
i would have no problem if it was the other way round to Widdop and Reed in that someone born as an antipodean but who has lived and been taught in England was to declare his allegiance,

but i just can't accept that someone can live and work here for 3 years and then represent that country.

Well said.



Best be careful though, the "racist" card will be dealt soon enough