I want to start with the assumption that Gareth Widdop, who has been playing well recently in the NRL, will be England's five eighth/stand off. He is the incumbent and Wayne Bennett will have been watching him.

This leaves open the question of who, on current form should be England scrum half back?

Here are the candidates:

Matthew Smith
Luke Gale
Daniel Brough
Daniel McGuire
Robert Burrow
Richard Myler
Joseph Mellor
James Ellis
Marcus Sneyd
Liam Finn
Samuel Tomkins

Please vote in the poll

You may change your poll vote after reflection and in the light of discussion

Liam Finn ????? more chance of me getting the spot !

Shouldn't it be Lucas Gale?

And Liam Finn is Irish and just not very good (putting it politely).

McGuire and Burrow are done at international level now, forget them. same for Brough, sick of hearing about his selection he is over 30 now so that boat sailed a couple of years ago around WC time. Myler,Ellis,Sneyd and Finn are decent SL club level players at best but nowhere near international standard imo, lets get real here. Mellor looks like a possibility down the line but i would want at least another year or two of his current level to see him in an international shirt.

Being realistic that leaves the Tomkins as left field option( my preference), Smith who although he isn't a world beater is now proven as a steady pick, or Gale who if we are going to take a punt on anyone has put himself at the front of the pecking oreder and probably has earned a shot.

Also, no Samuel Powell? for me he is ahead of at least half of that list.

Good to see that on current form Tomkins is rightly leading the voting.

Good old Jane and her crazy threads.

If be tempted to go with Tomkins and Gale as halves.
Though it partly depends how Brown goes for the rest of the season.
As for McGuire, I agree in general his days are done but say if Tomkins or Gale were injured and McGuire has another good season I wouldn't rule him out.

Joe Mellor not in this discussion but Finn and Ellis are? Thread over.

joseph mellor is.

I personally think McGuire has been a far better all round half back the last few years that his early 'try crazy' support driven days when he was a rep player. He would more than likely imo have a far bigger impact now for England than then.

England need to move forward and look to the next WC and beyond where the likes of McGuire, Burrow, Brough and even Brown who is also over 30 won't be around.

Be interesting to see how Bennett goes, i have no doubt he will have Widdop at 6 but who plays along side him is anyone's guess.

So after four or five games games Mellor is suddenly international class?

As much as it pains me to say Gale is much further ahead in the pecking order.

It is 50-50. Some Lukes are just "Luke" on their birth certificate, unlike "Rob" who will always be "Robert" or "Robin," or "Bill" who will always be "William."
"

How do you know there isn't a Rob who's just Rob in their birth certificate? Are you the guru for birth certificates?

don't usually respond to these kind of threads, but Danny Brough is captain of Scotland who will be playing in the 4 nations, Liam Finn is Irish and not really anywhere good enough.

What about Williams? he was the next big thing wasn't he? he was the England scrum half for the rest of his playing days based on a couple of good games for Wigan.
like i said, !

Williams been playing injured this season and sat out the last few games but will come good towards the end of it. He is not an international class halfback yet though.

It just shows how bad the options are if we're deciding between Williams, Luke Gale and an injured full-back Sam Tomkins.

spot on!
and a guy (mellor) who has been around for ages and only now mentioned because his team are doing well.

I'd agree with that. I'd like to see the England setup really start to use people like McGuire, Sinfield, Wellens, Cunningham etc

If nobody's in decent nick in SL you could add Josh Hodgson to the list as a wildcard. He's played a bit of 7 for the Raiders and looks very comfortable there.

Widdopp still creates far too little for me. Nothing at all vs the Sharks and it was too wet to tell vs the Bunnies last week. I want to see him actually set up tries from passes or breaks he makes himself. He was ordinary as could be at the back end of last year and has started off in similar fashion this year.

As an aside, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that since Bennett took over as coach he'll be getting approached by NRL players. A really left-field halfback could be Hodkinson, who is unlikely to be picked for Origin again.

Mcguire was the best half in the country last year imo. I don't understand why he missed out. If he regains fitness and form he should at least be in the squad. (it's a hard one though as as well as wanting to win he might not be around for the WC).

Of other options I'd look at Gale Tomkins or if it isn't a fluke, Mellor.

Seriously though the OP's list contains an irishman, the scottish captain and a guy whose almost exclusively played hooker for the last 3 plus years...

I would add Myler has also looked pretty good, but I think Gale has a better all round game.

Again, talk of Tomkins, at half back, he has played full back for the last, what 5 years? as i say every year, if he isn't good enough for FB then he shouldn't be shoehorned into the side because he's Sam Tomkins.
I presume people mean Sam and not Logan or Joel?

Not just because he's Sam Tomkins; he beat Benji Marshall's Kiwis from the halves for England after all. But he's not properly played there for years, so I'd like to see him play some SL there before pitching him in at international level. We don't want to make the same mistake the fools in RU did, thinking if we could get this one guy, it'd solve all our problems.

Tomkins must be 4th choice at best at this moment in time, how can people even know how he will go, hasn't even started a game. Reputation shoild stand for fack all.
Gale has already been robbed of 3 caps by the idiot that was previously in charge, that was disgraceful.

Eorl Crabtree used to be a 20+ tries a season centre ...lets suggest he gets picked for England there based on that !!

In the Autumn we should have had a Gale and Maguire half back pairing and i think we'd have whitewashed the Kiwis with them two.