What is it with his lack of size that makes people think he shouldn't be playing for England?

While i don't think you can completely rely on statistics, as Mark Twain famously quoted, his stats for this season are incredibly impressive.

579 Tackles, 12 Missed! His size doesn't stop him having making all those tackles successfully.

For example Ben Westwood, who i really rate by the way, 421 tackles, 27 missed. No one would question his size or defence!

His average gain is comparable with all his rivals, more than Whitehead, way more than Ferres, just behind Westwood.

I saw somewhere some Opta stats, which showed him to be the third most effective player in Super League. I couldn't agree more. His defence is incredible, the lines he runs are superb and his support play is great.

People on here say that the big Southern Hemisphere forwards are too big for him. He coped very well with the Samoans last week, the Aussies won't be so big and NZ will be about the same as the Samoans. I don't see where this theory carries any weight, if you pardon the pun. It's not like he doesn't tackle big players in Super League.

Liam is a superb player and as you say the stats are there for all to see.

Everyone seems to be glossing over that it was his drive that let Clarke go through. Took a few defenders down then got a quick play the ball. Quality player

Very valid points. Think we get a little obsessed with size. Look at Tom Burgess, not good enough, but is in because he is a big.

Outstanding defensive state.

To be fair, tackle % statistics also don't show if he's winning collisions or slowing down the PTB.

I know a while ago he was getting some stick from Wigan coaches because his collisions weren't as big as other players. One of the things he is good at though is slowing down the PTB, one of the best I've seen - I've no idea how he gets away with it as much as he does.

He does get pinned for this from time to time though. The penalty for holding down Higham's leg in the Semi vs Wire was absolutely stupid.

Agree, always shouting at the TV to get him to let go in the tackle. Can't afford to push his luck against Australia.

I rate Farrell, but whitehead and ablett have both been way ahead of him this season and should have been in front of him in the starting lineup and Farrell on the. Each. Tompkins should not be even in the squad

He's a far better player than Joel Tomkins, Whitehead has to play next week

Think Joel was superb in defence but didn't offer much going forward.

Thought he was good and actually tons of work going forward putting his hand up a lot.needs a bit more time to get back to his dangerous line running which is one of the reasons i thought he shouldn't have been selected but fully justified his place today on that display.

There is a good chance that Farrell will be suspended next week after being put on report for an alleged chicken wing. I'm not his biggest fan but he his a load better than Joel Tomkins, who in my view is the fourth best second row in the squad and probably not even in the top 10 of English second row forwards.

Aside from costing us a try.

He's been a shadow of the player he was since returning from union. Probably needs another year to get all the bad rugger habits out of him.

Farrell looks great in SL because he breaks precisely at the point where many teams defend poorly.

He doesn't make huge yards at international level because neither the Aussies nor the Kiwis are weak edge defenders two out from the ruck

Lets be honest, aside from O'Loughlin England don't posses a truly World class back rower right now.They are all good club and SL players no doubt but i dont see any of the current batch making waves at international level.Tomkins and Farrell were as good as we could have expected today and i dont think Whitehead or Ferres or Ablett or whoever else would have made anymore of an impact.

All this club biasness is getting quite tedious.

Farrell was the best back row for England again and was unlucky not to get a try assist for his kick at the end. At times he does struggle to make metres if there are several tacklers quickly on him and he's at a standing start but generally he's been making good ground and also getting a quick play the ball.

He shouldn't be banned for the alleged chicken wing. Inglis grabbed hold of him and kept hold of him. Farrell didn't deliberately twist the arm, he just fell on him as Inglis kept hold.

Tomkins and Ferres have offered very little though and have been quite disappointing. Tomkins is well off the pace and I'm surprised he's been selected. Ferres wasn't in particularly good form from what I saw at the end of the SL season. Whitehead is the form back row but his defence seems very dodgy when I've seen him and he seems prone to missing tackles. He also doesn't have the attacking work rate of Farrell or the likes of Ellis and Westwood from previous years although he does score plenty of tries from kicks.

I thought was very good today - very aggressive in defence.

The issue is Hodgson he is not up to this standard at the moment - his reading of the game is poor and he doesn't control the speed of the attack. Look at the difference Clark made when he was on the field

It was a chicken wing. Plain as day.

J.Tomkins should be dropped for either Whitehead or Westerman. Or I'd possibly even have Ratchford or Hardaker off the bench for an added attacking dimension, if O'Loughlin is fit enough to do 80 against Samoa.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Hodgson dropped as well and Clark doing the 80. Hodgson made 15 metres all game...

Again, before lauding Clark - he blew two tries.

Hodgson looked extremely poor today. I don't mind a hooker not creating constantly and posing a threat as long as they have good distribution and more importantly are solid and brutal in defence. Which he wasn't unfortunately.

Farrell had another good game. He won't often make a gap for himself although he does every so often with his quick feet. He needs someone to hit him when he runs his good lines, this is where Widdop has been lacking. He's not creating much.

Bit of naivety on his 2nd international appearance bit harsh if you ask me

True. But you don't need to blow that many before you're considered a liability. He has to realise this isn't SL. If he can't make that mental leap his international career will be short-lived.

At international level a back row should be able to offload, Farrel has no off load, he's not an international player for me, hopefully whitehead will step up

I much prefer Ferres, he's also knows how to get in to the oppositions faces in big games, he's developed in to an excellent backrower

Farrel didn't do him self any favours today. Being steam rollered inhis first tackle and having to resort to the chicken wing set the tone for the rest of his game. The disciplinary may help us out for the NZ game.
Whitehead in. Sorted.