McNamara has (or has tried to) do what Meninga has done with the QLD side, keep them together and back them to succeed. In or out of form is irrelevant for Mal, the main bulk get picked. Form selections wouldn't see Harrison, Shillington, Myles or to a point, Thurston get selected. But Mal backs the group he knows and trusts to get it right when it counts. Mac will try and replicate this in my opinion, wether it works or the QLD bunch are a different breed of competitions is yet to be seen

He's shown the wrong attitude according to Tony Smith

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22800164[/url

England coach in poor squad selection shocker? I blame KouCASH.

Makes it sound like he's constantly been seeking assurance that he'll be picked whilst also keeping his foot in the door for Scotland, like being in a relationship , where someone can't make up their mind but guilt tripping one of the parties about leaving them

Is this the same Tony Smith who said he was staying at the Giants whilst having talks with Leeds and then moving two days after he said he would stay at the giants. Fooking hypocrite

Not bitter at all then

So Smith has come out and had a dig at an individual player. I can't remember him doing that very often - suggests to me he feels pretty strongly thatMcNamara should be backed up regarding Brough.

Brough has had what 4 or 5 clubs in 10 years with a solitary Challenge Cup medal with a club he was booted out of.

He's in great form but let's not build him up to something he's not.

A bit like a probables v possibles would love it!

Does anybody much care what Tony Smith says on matters unrelated to Warrington? His stewardship of England at the last World Cup, was sub-optimal to say the least and a lot of the criticism of McNamara stems from fears he is following a similar path.

And his recent calls for the RFL to be stronger (ie do what he wants them to do) and less innovative (by sticking with a failed system that nobody trusts) was pretty toe-curling, IMO.

Great club coach, very nice guy by all accounts, and entitled to an opinion like everybody else - just doesn't carry that much weight for me on certain subjects.

Edit - there's also the irony that he's arguably kept out of the team by a player who has chosen England because he wasn't willing to take on the challenge of earning a place in the kiwis team - struggling to see that that represents a better attitude. I've no problem with what either of them have done - just don't see any difference.

The squad McNamara has is significantly better than the squad Tony Smith had in 2008. Are you saying you wouldn't want Tony Smith coaching the current England side?



He was spot on with his comments. We radically changed the format of the competition, attendances, and the amount of players playing the game at all levels increased, yet now because a few championship clubs whinge, we're looking at changing it back to a system that failed for 40 years.

Smith is very intelligent, knowledgeable and successful, he has close ties with many throughout the game, at all levels and huge amount of information to from his opinions from. He works hard and is experienced.

I can see why many RL fans don’t like him when he says things they dont want to hear.

Slightly O/T but Peter Wallace has also decided to play for Scotland as well.

Well said Tony Smith.

Depends on the extent to which he recognised and learned from his mistakes last time when England failed to even give a good account of themselves or fulfill even their fairly limited potential. IMO. It wouldn't especially excite me tbh. Equally, I'd acknowledge that is one of the few blots on his very impressive copybook.

Some of the players available for the World Cup are exciting - I just worry a bit about how the attempts to engender a club atmosphere by mainly sticking with a pool of players selected a couple of years out limits our options, which are already narrower than we'd like.




If he was right, then he was late. Licensing died to allow Bradford to be reborn.
Whether that was worth it or wise or not is open to debate, but the opportunity to be 'stable, strong and consistent' as he put it, had already gone. Possibly even before that, when they accidentally ended up letting newco Wakefield continue in SL. It could be argued that 'stable, strong and consistent' is better than 'transparent, fair and honest' of course. They're all very subjective terms anyway. Events blew the system off course very easily - as it was inherently weak - and the pretence of carrots and sticks couldn't be maintained. Propping up such an obviously flawed and weak system isn't strong, it'd be stupid, if it were even possible.
It has to be some form of P&R or out and out NRL-esque franchising, either of which represents change and either of which could equally be viewed as a strong or weak decision, depending on your own preference.

Yes he is/does.



I don't dislike him. I just think he's wrong on these issues and his arguments aren't even all that internally consistent, or deserving of especial credence - because his positive attributes are in other areas.

I think his argument actually made perfect sense, especially in regards to youth development and the effects of youth development at a national level under P+R. Lets face it, Tony Smith is the poster boy of franchising, he has seen the damage the uncertainty of P+R causes and its damaging effect on building a club at Hudds, he saw its damaging effects at national level as England coach (I wonder what Smith would have given to put out a back line of Tomkins, Hall, Watkins, Cudjoe, Charnley, rather than Wellens, Calderwood, Sykes, Senior, Smith) and under franchising he has taken a middling club to the very top echelons.

Im not sure many people are in a better position to comment.

Should probably have said something sooner then. I wouldn't dismiss what he says because he's some nomark, because clearly he isn't - on the other hand I'm not going to all jelly kneed because it is him saying it, any more than I would for any fairly prominent figure in the game. I can reel off a few big names that are in favour of various options, I'm just surprised that his view is perceived as all that weighty and that he seems to be very keen at the moment to wade into issues beyond his immediate remit.
De facto franchising, as opposed to criteria-based licensing, might well be working - but acknowledging that is what we have and continuing with it is itself change of a type. If that's what he's advocating.

Back on Brough - no different, that I can see, to any number of English or Aussie born players who have chosen Scotland or Ireland. Does TS think they've all got bad attitudes too?
If he's been a bit Billy Bighead with McNamara (which I can believe in fairness, and it'd have looked better focusing on choosing Scotland rather than any sense that he's rejected England), it seems unlikely to have cost him anything, as SM clearly doesn't fancy him and seems very unlikely to have picked him anyway. And the attitude-exclusion issue could be seen as a chicken and egg thing.

Whilst they aren’t within his remit, they certainly aren’t outside of his experience. Very few people have been England/GB coach, even fewer recently. The current and previous one seem to hold similar opinions on Danny Brough, and there isn’t a huge bandwagon of support for him coming from similary quarters. That in itself should be telling.He wasn’t advocating one specific structure. Just a less drastic change.

Brough had two choices, play for England or play for Scotland. He seems to have seen one as a stepping stone to the other, and when that hasn’t worked taken his bat and ball home. That is entirely the wrong attitude. Brough seems to have seen Scotland as a safety net, which again shows the wrong attitude, he should have gone all out and backed himself to play for England and taken it on the chin if not selected or committed to Scotland and been 100% to them. His chopping and changing and comments seem to betray a person doing what is best for themselves rather than their team.

How could you pick a WC with a player who is outright saying they wont play 2nd fiddle? How could you trust them? How could you trust that should they be dropped for whatever reason they would be a positive rather than negative influence on that squad? Especially with the history of being a poor team player and bad influence that Brough has.

If Brough wanted to play for England he should have taken the chance to make himself undroppable, instead his actions have made him unpickable.

Some fair points - although I think it reflects on the way the International game is set up, as much as on Brough. There's a good bit of movement between first and second tier International teams. Players move between Fiji or Tonga or Samoa and the Australian or New Zealand teams without much drama or censure.
I can understand the reasoning behind trying to build a close-knit squad with continuity of selection over a cycle, but the downside is that those that feel unfairly excluded (rightly or wrongly) will be aggreived and get disillusioned. I couldn't, honestly and in good conscience, say to Brough 'be patient and you'll get a crack'. Good for the competition that he'll be playing rather than just cleaning Richie Myler's boots, if nowt else.

The similarity between Smith's and McNamara's approaches, I don't find very reassuring. I had my doubts and misgivings ahead of 2008 and I'm feeling them again now. I want England to do well - it'd be such a boost for the sport. I want to be wrong, and I [ihate[/i being one of the doom-mongers, but it all feels horribly familiar.
Still, the proof will be in the pudding and we can but hope.

I think people are forgetting that it was Steve Mcnamara who asked Danny Brough to make himself available for England and not Brough deciding he wants to try and get a call-up .......in hindsight would Brough have agreed to do this if he knew he was never going to get picked for the England side regardless of how well he was playing ...would you ?

I can understand why Danny is frustrated as presumably he thought by agreeing to become available he would have more chance to shine at International level than with Scotland, more to the point why did Mcnamara ask him to change allegiances if he had no intention of picking him ??

People are saying Brough's attitude is wrong etc but what is he supposed to do when he's basically had the pee taken out of him ?

How has he had the pee taken out of him? He's just not made the squad for a mud season friendly, and Brough clearly doesn't have the coir meant or attitude to deal with that so he's taken his bat and ball home. I wouldn't want a player like that into squad either.

It's Brough who's made sure he doesn't play for England in the WC not McNamara

As I said make himself undroppable. If Brough said im disappointed not to be playing but im going to keep my head down, keep grafting away, and then went on to carry on his early season form for the entire season he would force his way in to the squad. He then goes in to the squad, trains out of his skin, goes the extra mile in every facet and he will earn the jersey.

He has basically removed that option from himself by declaring that he should be first choice or he isn’t going to play. That was never going to work regardless of talent. How was the rest of the squad, including the players he is demanding to replace, supposed to deal with that?

Its not McNamara who has stated Brough’s chance with England has gone, its Danny Brough

By constantly being left out by the very man who wanted him to choose England over Scotland ..and never picking him !

Brough joined Scotland when there was still GB - the RFL moved the goalposts - then he was asked to join England missed out due to injury and now hes in better form than any if thioe picked hes been overlooked.

He was not included in the ETS or the squad for the exiles game.

Brough wanted to play at the highest level he could.

He has done everything asked off him to play for England but has been overlooked.

As he still wants to play at the highest level ie the WC he has a choice play his heart out all season and still get overlooked by the idiot England coach. ( even if he got MOS he would be overlooked).

Tony Smith was quite happy to cherry pick players from other countries and to then dump them. He goes to Warrington He chose Bridge and Harrison for England after they played for Ireland and then dumped them. He has done nothing for international rugby and for him to say Brough's attitude is wrong is laughable.
Smith has never coached him. John Kear, Nathan Brown, Paul Anderson and Keiron Purtill have all coached him and have complemented him on his attitude.

Brough wants to play it is Mc Banana who is incapable of giving him the chance to shine. so he has no option but to go back to a coach and a country that will play him.