Full Squad:
Rob Burrow (Leeds Rhinos, Featherstone Lions)
Josh Charnley (Wigan Warriors, Wigan St Patricks)
Rangi Chase (Castleford Tigers, Dannervirke Tigers)
Eorl Crabtree (Huddersfield Giants, Huddersfield YMCA)
Leroy Cudjoe (Huddersfield Giants, Newsome Panthers)
Gareth Ellis (Hull FC, Lock Lane)
Liam Farrell (Wigan Warriors, Wigan St Patricks)
Brett Ferres (Huddersfield Giants, Smawthorne Panthers)
Ryan Hall (Leeds Rhinos, Oulton Raiders)
Zak Hardaker (Leeds Rhinos, Featherstone Lions)
Chris Hill (Warrington Wolves, New Spring Lions)
Jamie Jones-Buchanan (Leeds Rhinos, Stanningley)
Adrian Morley (Warrington Wolves, Eccles)
Lee Mossop (Wigan Warriors, Hensingham)
Richie Myler (Warrington Wolves, Halton West Bank)
Sean O’Loughlin (Wigan Warriors, Wigan St Patricks)
James Roby (St Helens, Blackbrook)
Kevin Sinfield © (Leeds Rhinos, Waterhead)
Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors, Wigan St Patricks)
Ben Westwood (Warrington Wolves, Normanton)

For me, the following should not be in the squad:

Burrow, Chase, Ellis (I'm a Hull fan but he is not back to full fitness yet), Jones-Buchanen, Morley, Roby (missed a lot of the season), Sinfield

Same old from McNamara

For the first time in a while i think we have the players (not just forwards, but backs too) that could really worry the kangaroos, but the half-back partnership is going to be key as will our coach's gameplan. And that's what i'm worried about the most...

Other than Sinfield i agree.

Morley too old. Should be nowhere near an England shirt now.

Burrow as back up hooker. even Leeds fans say he is not good enough for hooker.

JJB not playing well at the minute either

Roby injured for 10 weeks and is not fit enough yet. What do Lunt and Houghton have to do ?

Ellis not yet fit enough.

Only one centre in Cudjoe !

Hardaker to the other centre maybe or play Ferres out of position there ridiculous. Hardaker is still a work in progress and as a centre compared to Atkins is nowhere near international level at the minute.

Pretty concerned by the squad selection and basically suggests that he is not considering the new talent in SL this year (or last year)

Burrow and Roby - Should be Houghton and Lunt (roby will be in the WC squad regardless of playing this game or not)
Morley - Walmsley
JJB - Kirmond
Chase - Brough (also impressed by Owens at Widnes)
Ellis - atkins/Crooks/a.n. other centre

Agree apart from probably Sinfield, but only because he'll be captain and Chase who seems to be playing well for Cas.

Roby and Morley have played 2 games between them in about the last 10 weeks, so its obvious they haven't been picked on form, and JJB and Burrow have been garbage for weeks, and I've even seen Leeds fans saying they shouldn't be in their side, let alone the England team.

Atkins has pretty much burned his bridges with McNamara in my view. Had Watkins been fit, it would have been him and Cudjoe at 3 & 4, with Jack Reed an option for the WC.

I would have put Lunt and Houghton ahead of Roby and Burrow.

As for Morley, it'll be interesting to see whether he features with the NRL contingent available. I would expect George Burgess and James Graham in the squad, so I'd expect at least one forward to make way. I'd expect a similar scenario with Widdop for Chase and Sam Burgess / Chris Heighington for JJB.

Other than that, I don't feel that Steve McNamara has many better options. The fact is that the majority of our better players aren't flying over for this.

They wonder why no one watches International Rugby League

Same Old Same Old

as a hull fc fan, pretty relieved that only 1 fc has been picked, don't want to see any injuries picked up whilst we are in a good run, England honours can wait until the end of the season for me, but I doubt McNamara will be brave enough to go for youth!

JJB? Seriously? There's several better English backrowers in the comp than him!
I would have gone Walmsley to add an extra big man in the squad in case one picks up a knock this week or in training the week after.

I would have said Moz is only in the squad for his influence in the dressing room as the older statesman but only having 4 props it probably means he'll get a game. He's only just returned from injury though so I don't think that's the best option we could have taken.

I'm probably in the minority that I'd still have Sinfield & Chase with Myler as backup.

My only other differences to the squad what I called this morning was I'd have Lunt over Burrow and I picked Ratchford as cover for the backs but Ferres more than deserves his call up so no argument there really.

I'd go;
Tomkins
Charnley Cudjoe Hardaker Hall
Sinfield Chase
Mossop Roby Crabtree
Ellis Westwood
O'Loughlin

Subs
Hill Morley Farrell Myler

Burrow might actually do better for England than he has for Leeds because he'll be starting on the bench which is what McDermott should've done weeks ago. JJB's problem is he's a penalty machine at the minute, but his general play is good (144m and 41 tackles against Hull), he shouldn't get in though.

Where are the the centre's? McBanana has an obsession with playing people out of position, which is completely ridiculous when we have several tried and tested English centre's playing in super league!

Apart from those that do, and enjoy it. RL fans are a bunch of miserable g!ts.

I reckon the team will be:

Tomkins
Charnley
Cudjoe
Hardaker
Hall
Sinfield
Chase
Mossop
Roby
Hill
Ellis
Westwood
Flanders

Burrow
Crabtree
Morley
Ferres

Does he? who apart from Hardaker will be playing out of position? who in last years tournament played out of position?

Can Sinfield play centre? maybe he wants to try him in that role

I find it incredible that in a meaningless friendly match he is still refusing to pick form players and give them a try, players like :

Lunt
Houghton
Kirmond
Crooks
Lineham
Ratchford
Atkins
Goulding etc
Should at least have been looked at.

What is the point of naming Roby and Ellis when they have hardly played all year and no one can get any indication of what kind of form their in.

Burrow and JJB are simply in because they play for Leeds as even their own fans have said how poor they have been, Sinfield, because he is captain and again not on form

Morley is the past, we should be looking to youth and the future now !

...a bit strange really when you consider the talent we have available that he still picks the same players regardless of how fit or how well they are playing !!

What a joke this selection is.

Roby - not been playing
JJB - seriously
Burrow - not good enough
Morley - well past it!
Chase - not exactly in brilliant form
Ellis - offers nothing in attack for me
Myler - overrated

Would have like to have seen Ben crooks given a go at centre.

Based on the announcement Id go with,

Tomkins
Charnley
Cudjoe
Hardaker
Hall
Sinfield
Myler
Crabtree
Roby
Hill
Farrell
Westwood
O'Loughlin


Chase
Ferres
Mossop
Burrow

Moz too old, hasn't played much lately, there because of who he is,
Ellis, again hasn't played much lately and there because of who he is,
JJB, love him to bits but currently behind the other back rowers in the squad.

Here's who I would like to see, without the Oz based players,

Tomkins
Charnley
Cudjoe
Watkins/Atkins
Hall
Sinfield
Myler
Crabtree
Lunt/Houghton
Hill
Farrell
Westwood
O'Loughlin

Incorrect. Been outstanding the last 6 weeks, tops the assists in SL, playing less games then some of the nearest to him.

Technically, Hardaker is playing out of position for Leeds.

I think most of us want 'meaningful' competition. I am not into this idea of making up international teams when in reality if you asked a random sample of people in those countries to name an RL player they would look at you with a blank expression, some (Lebanon) might even as what rugby (either code) was.

There are 5 countries who play the game at any reasonable standard, Aussie, GB, France, NZ and PNG. The rest, such as Russia, South Africa, Lebanon etc are a joke.

Lets get back to GB test series against Aussie and Kiwi with regular matches with the Frogs.

Tomkins and O'Loughlin may yet withdraw from the squad due to knocks they picked up against Wakefield, and I hope that they do. The game against Wire the week after is far more important than some meaningless friendly.

Barring some almighty choking or freak run of results for Hudds, Wigan have already won the LLS regardless of the result with Wire.
You could argue the only friendly for England prior to the WC is far more important than a "meaningless" league fixture. So the combinations get one final tough game together and a better understanding of their games before the tournament starts.

Don't ask me that on the Monday though...

I don't know why we're bothering with an England squad. The attendance at the game will be down 14.26% on last year

Underestimate perhaps?

[uEngland V Exiles Attendances[/u
2011: 14,174
2012: 11,083 (down by 21.81% on previous fixture)
2012: 7,865 (down by 29.04% on previous fixture)
2013: ???

Free shirts and other massive discounts included in order to encourage folk to attend this pointless, low-intensity and meaningless fixture, but for how much longer?