Rob Burrow is injured.

Jon Wilkin at the top of his game has been seen out of his depth before at international level. He can do a job but that is about it.

Personally I would like to have seen Mossop in there. He has been arguably our best forward all season and in my opinion is a much better prop forward than Peacock. Plenty time for him yet though and is getting some valuable experience with the Knights.

Overall our pack is not as strong as it has been this time but our back line is much improved with the likes of Widdop, Reed, Tomkins coming through as established players.

I know hes not english but Rangi Chase is a good half back I just hope Kevin Sinfield compliments him.

Ultimately though we will only beat Wales and this is nothing to do with the ability of the team its to do with inept coach in charge.

I dont get carried away personally, however he his coming up against vastly superior players in lockyer and Marshall, than what he is used to week in week out.

Widdop has played amongst those players in the NRL and in Chase his off the cuff style will be a threat IMO of course

6.Widdop
7.Chase

Where's your long kicking game?

I don't believe the above have much of one between them. In order to beat teams that potentially out gun you, you need field position, even when kicking from your own half.

Sinfield at 13

Us playing percentages and basics against the Aussies isn't going to work IMO. They just hammer us hands down in that department and because one of their basics in putting pressure on the opposition kicker is that good even top draw long range kickers like Sinfield have struggled in the past.

We need to play to our strengths and looking at this side those are pace and individual flair. We have guys like Tomkins, Chase, Roby, Reed and Widdop that could open them up from deep and threaten them near their line. I don't think Sinfield does either and his long range kicking game will get swamped by a tireless Aussie defence.

4 big props added to a big, aggressive back row making room for the best looking backline we've had for years would be my tactics.

Take them on in a game of percentages and they'll kill us.

It's a shocking backline. Only Tomkins is world class. Admire your optimism though. Hope I'm wrong and we run the Aussies close, can't see anything other than a thrashing though.

Compared to others we've had recently it's vastly superior.

Guys like Reed, Chase and given an opportunity Widdop will add a lot. As we know out forwards are fine.

Against Australia our kicking game should be kick it dead to take out Billy Slaters kick returns or bomb him to death with a lot of pressure on him.

Either Roby or Heighington if he's 13 to get into Lockyer and Thurstons faces everytime they have the ball, on last tackle the first marker must sprint at the kicker.

On our kick returns Sam shouldn't trot over for the ball, pick it up, have a look around and spin it to a winger he should be sprinting to that ball and sprinting back as soon as, like Billy Slater does.

Keep the ball alive, offloads every chance we get, if we play 5 drives and a kick at any point we will get beat as Aus are too good a team to beat playing normal rugby.

I would play Widdop at 6 and Chase at 7 with Sinfield 13 doing the organising and kicking and jumping in at first receiver every now and again.

1 - Sam
2 - Hall (Prefer Charnley)
3 - Reed
4 - Yeaman
5 - Briscoe
6 - Widdop
7 - Chase
8 - Morley
9 - Roby
10 - Graham
11 - Ellis
12 - Heighington
13 - Sinfield

14 - Westwood (Prop)
15 - Carvell
16 - Bailey
17 - JJB

I would love us to go with

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Ryan Hall
3. Jack Reed
4. Kirk Yeaman
5. Tom Briscoe
6. Gareth Widdop
7. Rangi Chase
8. James Graham
9. James Roby
10. Jamie Peacock
11. Gareth Ellis
12. Ben Westwood
13. Chris Heightington

14. Kevin Sinfield
15. Jamie Jones Buchanan
16. Gareth Carvell
17. Adrian Morley

I'm just thinking how better that team would look with just Sean O'Loughlin, Sam Burgess and Ben Westwood in it.

Imo our only hope is to put 4 forwards on the bench and turn all the games into an arm wrestle.

Our backs, Sam excluded, are hopeless. Our forwards aren't that bad in comparison.

2 Ben Westwoods would scare the children and police horses of England



As for the side you name it's exactly as it should be but Macca won't go for it.

Widdop is more of an old fashioned 6 who plays off Cronk, he won't have the same platform for Eng as he will for Storm.
Secondly Eng don't play to Sam as Wigan do, he's never as effective as a FB for England as they don't use him in the 3/4s or as a second receiver, whereas they would if he was a 6.

I feel either or really.

widdop at 6 but also maybe atkins instead of yeaman???

Whilst I wouldn't claim parity with Australia, I'd argue this set of backs is the best we've had in years.

Widdopp isn't the finished article yet. At the Storm he played definite fourth fiddle behind Smith, Cronk and Slater. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets brought into the play more often next season, as when it came to the crunch playoff game the big 3 were shut down exceptionally well by the Warriors.

Widdopp does have massive potential though. He's not lightning quick but he's got a great rugby brain, and good passing and kicking (when allowed). This tournament will form a good part of his learning process. Personally I'd put him on at 6 and see what he can do.

Reed was named one of the top 2 centres in the NRL this year by Big League Week (or whatever its called). He has been a huge success for the Broncos. If anything he (and Ryan Hall) may be suffering from the fact that they've been shunted to the right to enable Yeaman/Briscoe to play on the left. Reed can play right centre but is probably more effective on the left. Hall has barely played on the right for Leeds. The real issue - again - is lack of strength in depth. If we had better options on the right, you may well have had Reed/Hall (or Reed/Briscoe) on the left.

Its also a nonsense to 'blame' everything on the coach. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but McNamara has added 3 quality players to our paper-thin squad in a matter of months. He's also picked a team witha plan in mind and is sticking to it.

My ony changes at this stage would be Widdopp to start, and put another prop on the bench. Whilst mobility helps against Australia, underestimating just how physical they are is not going to end well.

Stick Widdop and Chase in the halves, and I have a feeling we will beat Australia.

I'm not saying that if we do stick them two at halves, i just have a feeling England are gonna win

I'm of the opinion that if we don't do the percentage things, we won't be close enough to benifit if one of moments of individual skill come out. I don't think doing the % stuff will win us the game, we need something on top of that, but the simple stuff gives you the platform to work off. Without, you're giving the Aussies a head start.

The basics have always got to be there of course but we won't win on those alone. If we go in with an attitude of 'let's keep it tight and make no mistakes' playing a gameplan of 5 drives and a kick we'll get hammered.

We need a balance but I'd really like to see us chance our arm. The kiwis have never beaten the Aussies without a few risks being taken.

Agreed, its like p*ssing into the wind.



I am finding it really difficult to get excited about the match on Saturday, although I think our backs have improved dramatically with the likes of Widdop, Sam and Reed coming through to be established internationals we are still left with the inept muppet at coach with his backwards style to coaching.

England have a 14 point handicap. Who would your money be on?

I think we'll keep inside that just about so I'd back England.

England 16

Australia 24

1st try-Hall

Mom- Thurston

Att- 43500

Atkins isn't in the 4 Nations squad

I don't know about a 14 point start; England probably need at least a 20 point start. I can see us getting absolutely thrashed if the Ozzies get a roll on.

I just hope that the forwards can be competitive and we avoid embarrassment, with some magic from Tomkins to give us some consolation in what seems almost certain to be a heavy defeat.