i've never met or spoken to him but he appears to be an absolute professional (dont know about his time at Saints). I'm a member at Total Fitness, and have seen him regularly doing some mobility / stretching in the pool by himself. Literally a 30-40 minute session where he methodically goes through a routine, but that for me just shows the dedication he puts into his job and ensuring is body is in the best shape for the rigours for RL

And not to rub it in (well to rub it in a bit) but he's everything Saints need. A metre making prop, who plays big minutes and would allow you to rotate guys like Delaney, Walmsley and Stephens around him.

I do find his time in the NRL a bit sad in a way. He's far too good for a stint over there to have not been a massive success but there isn't much you can do about injuries. It was much the same with Sam Tomkins. A very good year was followed by a year of being injured/playing with injury and then you get labelled as not being up to it but it just isn't the case.

We did exactly the same with Williams before last seasons tests.

The club are appealing the decision to ban Thompson.

They will probably increase his ban

Yeah, they'll probably ban him for the other Test as well, and then complain bitterly when England get spanked in the forwards.

The club do right. There really was nothing in it; certainly not worthy of a ban.

Who would be the likely replacement as a starting prop for England? Mulhearn? Harrison?

Top quality options are thin on the ground really. I think that's summed up by Dupree being in a 31 man squad because his form hasn't been good enough IMO. If Thompson gets off this charge, I'd start him and Havard and play McMeekan and Tom Burgess from the bench. If he doesn't, then I'd push Burgess to start and bring Mulhern on to the bench. Realistically though, Lees is Wanes type of prop and I suspect he'll start both tests.

I rate Mulhern and think he should get in there. But front row seems to have gone from being easily England's biggest strength to perhaps their biggest weakness. Be great if another Burgess family popped up from somewhere.

Appeal unsuccessful, nice one Minichello, a tap on the shoulder and he went down like he'd been hit with a baseball bat, where's the outrage from Wilkin and co ?

Still can't get past nothing been done or even said about Burgess' forearm on Junior whilst on the ground . What's with the complete radio silence from all quarters?
Still, got a few months 'til Feb to get over it

2nd time this year KR have avoided a ban for a shot to a Wigan player on the floor, Hiku on Field in the CC and now Burgess.

Hiku and Burgess need to be dealt with the next time we play them.

Chris Hill selected in the squad

Can understand it, thought we looked light on props before Thompson got banned.

NY idea when the full squad is announced?

Marshall finally in a squad! Much deserved. Wardle out through injury. I recall him grabbing something, as though he was hurt on Saturday. It's such a shame that these injuries keep cropping up around international time because I think he would be huge for us.

Wardle and Farnworth would be a great centre partnership.

As good, if not better than anything any other nation could throw at us IMO. They're probably the best centres on either side of the globe. Such a shame we're yet to see it in action and it's also a shame that at a time we have a great backline, we're now struggling in the forwards. Imagine if you had a backline like this one, with a forward pack like the one in the early 2000's, with guys like Morley, Peacock, Fielden, Sculthrope, Farrell etc in it.

I've read that Wardle has 'withdrawn himself from selection'. Is he injured?

Yes, apparently Wardle and Johnstone are injured. Everyone else who didn't make the cut, such as Dupree, was a form based decision.

Tbh if you look at the backs from that time, they weren't [iawful[/i. In the 2003 Ashes we had Radlinski, Carney, Connolly/Gleeson, Senior/Gilmour, Scully and Long/Deacon in the backs. Richard Horne on the wing was the obvious glaring anomaly

Other than Carney, we didn't have a single decent British winger around then. Unless you count Mark Calderwood but I doubt anyone does.

The other glaring anomaly was the coach - David Waite was absolutely useless. Anyone even slightly competent would've got us at least 1 win in that series.

I am not totally anti Hill. I wanted Wigan to sign him when he left Warrington and some Saints fans wanted to sign him for this coming season.

However I do think Mulhern has been really good for Leigh for the past two years and would have been my choice for this series.

Yes. Apparently he woke up Sunday morning with a mouth injury due to excessive smiling Saturday evening.

Yeah agree, surprised mulhern hasn't been picked.


I thought hill would be as much about culture as playing ability and wane has said something about loyalty and hill playing on while injured in the past.

Wane will stick with players who have done it for him in the past.

I was surprised Mulhern didn't get called up too.