At almost 25 he's not young anymore, for me his defence just isn't at the level it needs to be for the international game.
He's greedy, which may be the result of playing in a team where he's one of the stars, and barring being quick and able to snap up an intercept I don't see much to his game.

Wardle, Percival, or even Bateman (and I never thought I'd say that!) ahead of him at centre for England.
Farnworth is first name on the teamsheet for me.

After Farnworth, Wardle and Newman who do we have in the centres? It's a bit thin there. As mentioned it's even worse at fullback. Welsby is out on his own. He wasn't as influential in this series as he has been in the past but I really don't see who else threatens his place.

O'Neill and Clark have hooker sewn up. I don't really rate Walker.

In the pack we have plenty but I'm not sure our back three is as big and mobile as the Aussie back three. In the world cup I was struck by how much quicker they all were and they combined that with size. We're going to need enough go forward so we're not consistently kicking from inside our 40m area like in all previous tests versus Australia.

Newman may be 25 but he's had a lot of injuries so missed a lot of rugby. He's also had the disadvantage of playing for Leeds

and so hasn't played in play offs versus the best in high pressure games. Given those factors I believe he can improve a fair bit. Versus Australia would be a tough place to learn so I'd have Wardle in front of him any day.

After those 3 you're probably looking at Toby King, who I thought went well against Tonga last year and does help you get away from your end and Mark Percival. I'd say the latter is extremely unlikely to be available though and I can't really blame him. It looks a challenge for him to get through a Superleague match, let alone a test series against Australia. It's a shame because Percival is without doubt our best centre after Farnworth and Wardle and would allow you the chance to use Farnworth as back up fullback and have confidence you won't fall apart in the centres.

FB
Welsby
Evalds
Connor
Brierley

Centre
Farnworth
Wardle
Newman
King
Percival
Cross?

Very bleak. We really need the likes of Lindop, Taylor-Wray, Eckersley and Robertson to get more first-ream games next year.

Umyla Hanley went very well at Leigh this year. If he shows the same improvement from this season to next as he did from last season to this then I think he becomes another option at centre. I would also include Sam Wood at Cas, who Wane has already given a debut to. So, there is some potential depth out there. Don't get me wrong, though, I am not suggesting either of them is at the level Newman or King is right now, never mind Wardle and Farnworth. But I could see one or both getting there. Hopefully we won't be forced into shoehorning back rowers like Currie and Bateman in there any time soon. It's true our defence has to be on point for 80 minutes against Australia, but we also need to be able to score tries, which is what cost us in the 2017 World Cup. I agree we are worryingly short on full-back options after Welsby. Niall Evalds would probably be my next pick, but he is already 31. Hopefully Eckersley might be able to step into that role, or maybe Harry Robertson.

i think part of the problem re FB is that Wigan, Wire, KR, Leigh, Leeds, Cas all have overseas FB and thats with me discounting Hull (cos i've no idea who their full back is anymore

, and Connor has moved on from Hudds, so really only left with Saints, Salford and London from SL last year. So that leaves Welsby with very little competition at the minute, certainly not for the no1 international jersey

an outside shout could be Sam Tomkins but given he's retired from the game twice, that would really be an outside chance but if he goes well this year, at least it would be some competition for Welsby to push him on

The starting options are as good as we've had for a while but the drop off is pretty frightening. Those young lads are very promising and maybe one or two really smash a door down a bit like Nsemba but we'll see. What worries me is the talk of teams getting more players off the quota and then that'll allow them to fill squads with more overseas players (and not very good ones half the time).

Game over if Welsby gets injured. Had hoped that Will Pryce could provide back up at fullback but he's on the outer at Newcastle.

Is it a bad thing he’s on an outer?

May well kick on elsewhere. He’s clearly a talented player.

Pryce was my hope for somebody to push Welsby. Maybe he can start to do it next season. If Welsby went down before the Ashes, I could see Farnworth going to fullback and in fairness, that could be the complete opposite of game over but we'd then absolutely need Wardle fit and available. You couldn't move Farnworth to fullback against Australia and leave yourself with a centre pairing of Newman and King facing off against Tabuai-Fidow and Trbojevic.

And the craziest part about that is Tabuai-Fidow and Trbojevic are 2 of the best full-backs in the NRL. We don't just lack depth, we also lack players who can excel in multiple positions.

At least we're not playing various loose forwards in the halfbacks and at hooker anymore.

And yet I remember the days when, if Kevin Sinfield was injured, it was a disaster for England/GB. Fortunately, as noted, we have a few more options now. I'm not sure Welsby has the game to play in the halves at the top level, though.

@moto748, it wont let me quote your text

it will be interesting to see how Saints play Welsby and Sailor, as there is a possibility that Welsby may move into the halves and Sailor to FB, which would really bugger up our international chances



. Stu / YG or FTV will probably have a better view than any of us do on that one though

and on the point yourself and Bullseye make re players switching for some unknown reason we've done that since the late 80s, moving loose forwards into 6,7, or 9, when they dont play there week in week out. Hopefully now, players are picked on merit, in their positions they play each week, so we arent putting square peg into round hole. We have a depth of talent across our game, with a couple of admittedly weaker positions as we've been discussing, but thats more, our 1st choice FB and Centres are fine, but depth beyond those players

I don't think anyone knows yet. Both Sailor and Wellens have alluded to the fact that they haven't nailed down if he is playing 1 or 6 yet. I presume that Briers will have a big input into this when he starts pre-season bearing in mind he was at the Bronco's with Sailor

Whilst I have previously said that Welsby's defensive game at FB still needs improvement, from the games I have seen Sailor play then I would suggest that Welsby is a better FB option in defence

My guess would be Sailor at 6 as he does seem to have a good short kicking game too.

When were they! Brilliant domestic career but I genuinely can't remember him ever doing anything of note at international level besides that missed tackle to lose us the WC semi v NZ. It goes against the prevailing wind here but an out of position Sculthorpe did a far better job for GB at stand off.

haha i thought this too. It's a shame because he had a hand in 2 tries in this game.

He just failed to do what everyone claims he did for Leeds, see out the game and manage us to a win.

That lack of control is what lead to the miss on Johnson IMO and that obviously overshadows setting up our tries.

I actually think it’s harsh that Sinfield is remembered for that miss.

He had a great game that day and one on one on the back foot against a 2013 Shaun Johnson off a quick play the ball I’m not sure many if any in the world make that tackle under such fatigue.

Seem to remember it’s a frantic game towards the end but we restrict NZ to 5 tackles out of their half, they are 40 yards from our line and one of the Burgess twins gives away a really poor high tackle giving them another 6 in our attacking zone to give them the field position for SJ to do what he did.

Sinfield though generally certainly didn’t have the impact Farrell or Sculthorpe did during their international careers and was always second fiddle to Locky on that stage too.

Great clubman Sinfield but I don’t think that form ever consistently transferred to the international stage.

Sinfield was a bit of a victim of being moved around at Leeds between 6 and 13 and also for GB/England, between 6, 13 and also 9. I look at this current England team and he's Harry Smith and if he was slotted in around Williams, Clark, Radley etc, then he can control the team and kick us around the field. It almost feels like he was playing with the wrong number on his back during his career. He wasn't big enough to be a 13 and he wasn't quick enough or enough of a running threat to play at 6. He played at 7 in that World Cup and the perception started to change but he then misses that tackle and we forget everything else.

100% agree.

His best games were at 9 and 7, positions he didn't really play at club level. Very unusual for that to happen. I remember Wally Lewis commenting very favourably about him after the first time he played at 9.

I went through a few of his games for GB and in addition to being moved around the place, when he was played in the halves one time, he was paired with Paul Deacon! Talk about a lack of balance. They then played him at loose forward in a series against New Zealand but with a halfback pairing of Leon Pryce and Rob Burrow, so you then have a job on to control the side and kick us around the field when you're in the middle of the field and having to do a lot of donkey work in defence.

The game is different now but if you had the players of that time and was setting them up now, you'd probably have Leon Pryce at fullback, Rob Burrow at stand off, Sinfield at scrum half and then Lockers (or a Gaz Ellis/Sam Burgess) at loose foward and there is no way you'd pair Sinfield and Deacon at 6 and 7. I probably bagged Sinfield more than most at the time but looking back, he was left out to dry a bit.

We’ve moved towards a half back and 5/8th model these days as 7 & 6.

Back then though we often had one half controlling one side of the field and one controlling the other basically a left side and right side half back.

In last 5 years generally we’ve moved away from that but these things are circular and I’m guessing within the next 10/15 years we will see it return.

In that old system Sinfield and Deacon could work, but I agree the way the game is played today they would pretty much cancel each other out.

The Bulls tried Pryce at fullback but it didn't work out as his positioning in defence and ability to catch a high kick weren't very good. He also wanted to play No6 above all else. We brought in Harris as he was seen as more "reliable" but in fact by 2006 he was more of an organiser than a runner and we paired him with Deacon which effectively meant two of a kind as halfbacks and no pace.