I couldn't agree more with this.

Hock is a prize be11end and a colossal waste of air. Why he is continually given a chance is beyond me. How many times does he have to let his club, fans, country down before we stop?

So Hock and this group of players thought the best way to deal with disappointment at the loss to Italy was to go out and break the drinking ban. Not refocus and work doubly hard ready for the start of the tournament. This at best smacks of arrogance, at worst a complete lack of respect for McNamara, the England RL staff and the supporters who have paid/are paying to watch that drivel.

To my mind Hock has been dropped as he has broken team rules twice; once for the drinking and once for missing training. He may consider it "just a 10-minute swim" but it's part of his training regime for England Rugby League to prepare for a massive tournament. Yet he gives an interview in which the general tone is "why me? I'm so hard-done-to, but the other boys did it too sir", in other words "it's not my fault, it's everyone else's".

Now I'm seeing the 'mental health' line being trotted out by various people. I'm sure there are players who deal with mental health issues, I'm sure there's more than we're aware of. It's a very serious issue and great work is being done to highlight it by organisations like State of Mind. However, not every player who exhibits bad behaviour is mentally ill. Sometimes people are [ijust[/i t0ssers.

Good comments, agreed.

McIlorum is missing for the first game on Saturday. Just as well.

The problem with Hock now is he has become a bit overrated.

Before his drugs ban he carried Wigan and was becoming close to the kind of influence that Farrell was when he was at Wigan - at that point he could have kicked on to becoming one of the best players in the world, possibly the best attacking forward in the world. But after his ban, he was noticeably less influential at Wigan and whilst he's still a good player so fans still rate him highly, he seems to have plateaued and declined.

When a player that everyone thinks is great, ends up at lower clubs in his late 20s its a sign that he's in a downward spiral from which he will not get out. It happened to Bobby Goulding going round Huddersfield, Wakefield, Salford and it happened in football to Gazza ending up at Middlesborough and Everton. Hock is not the player we thought he was going to be. He is good and has his moments, but he is not the calibre of player that could have taken hold of a game against the Aussies and turned it on his own, which say Sonny Bill Williams could for NZ. He's not good enough to justify turning a blind eye to his behaviour.

Hock still has his fans and I expect after we get beat by Australia, he will become seen as a martyr in the eyes of some England fans who will wonder if Hock had played we might have won, but thats nonsense he is not that good or influential and he is a potential liability as well.

Hock might well end up having a good world cup now, because he won't be playing. The criticism will be targeted at Sinfield - a true professional who would never have let his teammates down like Hock has, and Hock will be talked about as the potential saviour of English rugby if only he could get an international call up, but if that was true, he wouldn't be playing for clubs like Widnes and Salford.

Unfortunately for us, Australian sides make very few mistakes on the field but fully exploit those of the opposition. Hock is one of those players that can still turn a match in England where standards are lower, but his moments of madness are a total liability against quality international sides.

I think England actually stand a better chance of winning without him. Or should I say I don't think we will lose by as many points.

Not often I agree with you Sali but that's a good post.