England team: Jonny Lomax; Jermaine McGillvary, Kallum Watkins, John Bateman, Ryan Hall; Gareth Widdop, Luke Gale; Chris Hill, Josh Hodgson, James Graham; Sam Burgess, Elliott Whitehead, Sean O'Loughlin (c).

Replacements: Alex Walmsley, Chris Heighington, Thomas Burgess, James Roby.

What do people think.

No Percival? Bateman in his place? Prepare for the VT to self combust.

Chris Heighington is lucky to get a spot.

+1, Bateman has a really tough job there. The writing was on the wall when Bateman and Currie played there last week and Percival came off the bench on the wing

Like others unsure about Bateman when we have Percival but I assume Bennett is looking for a defensive stint rather than an attacking one.
I wouldn't know Heightington is I fell over him.
I hope that Widdop steps up to the plate. I have always found him disappointing when he has played previously for England and I just hope that on Friday he can make amends.
Glad that Roby has got a place as his form at the end of the season was very good.

I get Bateman to be fair. They have a couple of big centres and Bateman will cope with that physicality without too many problems.

Heighington I'm not as sure on when you have the likes of Currie and McMeekan available but he's experienced and certainly doesn't strike me as somebody who will let you down.

Overall a fair team. Let's hope we give a good account of ourselves.

Someone on the Casforum is asking why 'Captain Marvel' has been selected and surely there must be someone better...... Well there isn't and there isn't by a long way. I would love to know who is a better captain to have out there than Lockers. It's obvious that the rest of the squad look up to him. It's the Wigan envy i suppose. We only have 2 players in the squad and every bugger is having a pop at them. At least Sam isn't there this time for the Leeds fans to harass this time.

Does anyone give us a chance against the Greayn & Gawlds? There is a lot of class in that team, even the squad players. I expect Frizell and one of if not both Trobojevic brothers on the bench. Whoever they name will for sure make a difference to the game when they come on. We all know about Slater, Dugan, Cronk and Smith and are the main dangers for me. I like Holmes and Gagai but are nowhere near the quality that has gone before them. The rest of the squad although is strong, looks very average for an Australian side. If Inglis and Thurston were in there it would look at different side but they arent and on paper it shows. In their own back yard or not i think they are there for the taking if our mind set is 100%. Pity i cant get the game off work

The drivel about Lockers is constant on the Facebook groups. He's so big for England it's untrue. He didn't play last year and we stank. He played the year before, we beat the Kiwis and he was man of the series. He's been man of the series on a few occasions for England and every coach and player he's worked alongside knows exactly how good he is.

I watched Brian Noble picking his best 1-13 on Rugby AM from all the players he's coached and he described Lockers as a sensational player. He said he was the man who held every side together and could do it all. If you wanted a tough carry, a sensational cut out pass, a little kick through close to the line etc then they'd just say 'give it to Lockers'.

I hope he and England have a brilliant tournament. This could be his last involvement with England and if it is, then it would be nice to see him go out on a high.

Exactly the same kinds of morons who used to bag Andy Farrell, before him Ellery Hanley, and before him Billy Boston.

The perfect illustration of why, as the old adage says, if you listen to people sitting in the stands, you'll end up sitting with them.

Morgan was a standout player in the playoffs the Cowboys scraped into the 8 but he lead them around and got them to a final, they were expected to drop out in the first rund. I was guilty of thinking he just followed Thurston around, but he has shown enough to get the place in the Aussie team.

To be fair tomkins doesn't really wind people up anymore given his fall from grace.

O loughlin is still class just needs to stay injury free.

So he only wound you up because he was a Good player?
Nice to know that we were right all along

England are clearly hoping to keep the opening encounter v Australia close on the scoreboard IMO

Didn't wind me up.

I don't think it's his ability that's frustrating people but more we e not got anyone looking to take his spot.

I thought that after the nz series sol n Roby would start to be phased out of the side Rob has in part but we've not looked like getting a solid replacement for sol as yet but I think we won't have a choice but to find one after the world cup?

It has the look of a “damage limitation” squad to me. No pace, no spark, little creativity, but big and strong. If our pack can get us close, we have strength in the backline to force over, but nobody there is gonna go the length of the field. Lomax in defence will have to stay deep to counter their breaks, since we don’t have anyone that will catch them if they break through.

Good performance that. Pity Lomax is nowhere near international standard. Hardaker is an idiot.

On 69 minutes Lomex went for glory and had a one man over lap.

No it was the diving, trapping players arms, and winging to the ref, all of which seem to have diminished in his game since his stint in the NRL

Would you guys have picked Tomkins btw? His defence and positioning looked a lot better than Lomax this season to me and even though loosing his pace means he isnt Sky's golden boy anymore I think he is all round probably a better player.

Lomax didn't have the greatest of games, but I'm not sure Tomkins would have done much better given his form last season. Lomax needs more exposure at this level to see if he's really up to it, so I'd stick with him. Hopefully the team will improve as the tournament progresses.

Missed Walmsley, can't understand why he didn't bring Taylor in for him, we looked very lightweight on the bench.

not good enough, so close but not enough, always the same story

Only seen some highlights, mainly the tries. But the tackling looked woeful.

First half was like watching Wigan last season - 5 drives and an awful long aimless kick downfield.

Second half was better and for long periods England were the better team without really threatening the line enough.

The biggest issue for me (and why England will always struggles against Aus) the half backs - we seem to have a different pairing for every tournament or tour, the halves looked like they did not really have any idea what each other was going to do - compare that to Aus with a spine of Cronk, Slater and Smith who knows each others games inside out. We match them in the forwards and the backs did ok esp the wingers (although Bateman is not a centre at this level). Lomax not sure about - perhaps the fact that at Saints he has played at various positions throughout the season might not have helped.

Yeah, I couldn't understand them saying on TV that the back three were excellent. Hall and McGillvary (especially) were very good, but not so sure about Lomax. Maybe he'll give Ratchford a go in the next game. As for centres, they left the best English centre at home in my book; Shenton. But there was talk he wasn't fully fit; whether that's why, I don't know.