What would be your England 13 if you were picking it now???

I would prob go for something like this..

1.Briscoe
2.Hall
3.Senior
4.Shenton
5.Fox
6.Burrow
7.Brough
8.Graham
9.Roby
10.Peacock
11.Burgess
12.Ellis
13.O’Loughlin

14.Tomkins
15.S.Moore
16.Carvell
17.Morley

1.Briscoe
2.Hall
3.Gleason
4.Shenton
5.Briscoe
6.Pryce
7.Brough
8.Morley
9.Diskin
10.Peacock
11.Ellis
12.Burgess
13.O’Loughlin

14.Roby
15.Crabtree
16.Carvell
17.Graham

we can't begin to compete with Aus in the threequarters so we have to blow them aside in the pack!

We need two effective halfbacks, one to push the pack around and dominate the kicking exchanges and the other to link play and offer a threat to the opposition defencive line.

1.Briscoe
2.Hall
3.Gleeson
4.Yeaman
5.Pryce
6.Tomkins
7.Brough
8.Morley
9.Diskin
10.Graham
11.Peacock
12.Ellis
13.Locky

14.Roby
15.Carvell
16.Burgess
17.Crabtree

Have they announced any train-on squad additions this week i.e. Trin & Cas players.

i havent seen anything but the fact that Ryan has withdrawn suggests he had been named in the squad

Hmmmm, not 100% on who is English/not injured but here goes;

1. S. Briscoe
2. A. Gardner
3. M. Gleeson
4. M. Shenton
5. R. Hall
6. S. Tomkins
7. D. Brough
8. A. Morley
9. M. Diskin
10. J. Graham
11. J. Peacock
12. G. Ellis
13. S. Burgess

14. J. Roby
15. S. Wild / L. Gilmour
16. G. Carvell
17. A. Lynch

2 kn0bheads for half backs (just like the old days) that will annoy the other team and be all over them. Tomkins for his running game and Brough to get the team around.

Took me ages to work out who to put on the bench, went for Wild, he can cover the backs and forwards (would have gone for Gilmour, retired? Not English?).

Lynch maybe injured? Think he's the best ball playing prop forward England has.

Bit 50/50 with regards to the backline, could poss put Shenton on the wing for Gardner and have Yeamon in at centre.

DB can't qualify this year having only just switched allegiance...



A lot will say Burrow at 7 but I think without Sinfield in the side to handle kicking duties that won't really work well (Sinfield is a great club player but like Wellens isn't good enough to play against the likes of the Aussies). We could always go for youth with Tomkins and Myler but the limited experience would be killer!

He have some potent front row forwards to choose from and Peacock in the second row is a good idea. Not sure about Crabtree, I don't think Australia would fear him, but we could benefit from his offload. Lynch is a good shout though. Maybe Wild at 13?

Backs are a nightmare. Briscoe isn't anything more than solid (but is at least faster than Wellens) and will probably get carted off injured for excess bravery. Hall has to play but we need a Keith Senior who can actually give him space to score. Other than the man himself, now retired from internationals, we don't have a centre who would fit the bill. Our young centres aren't any better...

I wouldn't wanna be Tony Smith.

Isn't there some rule wich basicallyt scraps all allegancies (ie no 2 year wait) if you declare your allegance in the year directly after a World Cup.

I thought this is why both Brough and Carvell are not eligable, may be wrong but i am sure i read it that way especially in the cases involving a few of the lads that played for Fiji in the World Cup but now will be selected for Australia like Hayne.

After the world cup you can choose who you want to play for?? I'm sure I read that somewhere..

Sounds very random!

Brough and Carvel are both eligable and available for England.

Lynch is out.

1.Briscoe
2.Hall
3.Gleeson
4.Shenton
5.Fox
6.Tomkins
7.Burrow
8.Morley
9.Roby
10.Graham
11.Peacock
12.Ellis
13.Westerman

14.Wilkin
15.S.Moore
16.Burgess
17.Crabtree

Tony Smith will announce them later this week.

I'm not picking on your post in particular mate, but I'm still waiting to see or hear some justification for Rob Burrow being selected for England.

By my recollection when he was first selected people had major doubts about whether Burrow had a complete enough game to make it at international level. Apart from a couple of decent games against mediocre opposition his limitations have been exposed.

This season he has done nothing to merit being selected for England again, arguably there are a number of scrum-half's who deserve selection ahead of him most notably Eastmond, Brough and Myler.

I've been a champion of Peter Fox for a couple of seasons and last year he was desperately unlucky To miss out on the World Cup. This year however his farm at the end of the season is questionable and he doesn't look like a player capable of matching it with the best in the world.

I would be tempted to possibly try Eastmond at centre and switch shenton to the wing

Eastmond would get murdered by Hodges and/or Inglis, to be fair whoever goes up against them will but regards damage limitation Eastmond is not the answer!!

Thats why I have picked Yeaman over Shenton. Although Shenton has had a good season Yeaman for me is the superior deffender, we are never going to beat them in the backs so our main aim should be to try to nullify the threat.

Yeaman was superb when he played against the Aussies when we turned them over last Tri Nations and due to the wonderful coaching of Noble was dropped for the next game, i think he deserves one more crack at them to see how he goes prior to being overlooked. He seems to play better in the more intense games likes the rough stuff that Shenton may not be up to speed with just yet.

When we're defending I'd risk Ellis in the centre's.

He would probably be our best option in terms of putting some big hits in on them. And also missing the minimum amount of tackles!

He obviously can't keep up with them for pace...but then again, who can?

So Yeaman and Ellis in the centres in England?
Hall on one wing and Kirk Dixon on the other?

That would leave is looking defensively solid in the three-quarter line even if it betrayed our negative intention.

1.Briscoe
2.Hall
3.Ellis
4.Yeaman
5.Dixon
6.Pryce
7.Brough
8.Morley
9.Diskin
10.Peacock
11.Westwood
12.Burgess
13.O’Loughlin

14.Roby
15.Crabtree
16.Carvell
17.Graham

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Id be happy with that.

not seen anything of dixon, is he really anywhere near international standard?

He's 4th in the try scoring lists (behind David Hodgson, no one has put his name forward for selection - thoughts?) and is pretty good under the high bomb.

I don't know about Ellis in the centres, I think he struggles in defence when players try and run outside of him. When he's in the middle, he just smashes everything that moves.

Jon makes a good point about Yeaman, he is a stocky lad, I think he would do alrite in the centres. If Yeaman did play, i'd be tempted to put Shenton on the wing, get him introduced to the international scene.

My reasoning for suggesting Ellis in centres is that Shenton is a young lad with a great future, playing him against two of the best players in the world where he may well get slaughtered will do more harm than good.

The same would've applied for Atkins, if not more so after Senior took him to pieces. You can only imagine what the Aussie centres would do to him!

In all honesty it would take a miracle for us to beat the aussies, but at least with Ellis in the centres we might be able to nullify some of their attacking threat?

It's disappointing to have to think so defensively, but it really is our only way of not conceding a cricket score!

Well not even the cas fans are championing his cause for international duties! Dixon is a good player who has come on alot, he came from hull fc who thought he was a crap winger, we spent 2 years turning him into a decent centre and then realised he was a much better winger, who was one of sl's top try (and points) scorers this season. Safe under the high ball, and scores alot of tries off kicks, but just has quite got the pace to be up there for international selection. still work in progress is dixon but he's coming along very nicely, dont think he will ever play for england but will be a good sl player for years to come.

I think we need to play our best players in there best position. Ellis for me these days is an out and out second row. While some may call me for suggesting Martin Gleeson as I am a Wigan fan, I am not so one eyed to say that he has been fantastic in his time at Wigan thus far, what I will say is he has not yet shown his form going forward, although he was in my opinion Englands most dangerous player at the World Cup, and his defence since he has been at Wigan has been top class, solved a massive problem in that department.

Well there has been no call up for Brough according to the skysports website www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html Big mistake in my opinion, best British 7 by some distance this year. Looks like we will head down the tried, tested and failed route again.

Well there has been no call up for Brough according to the skysports website www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html Big mistake in my opinion, best British 7 by some distance this year. Looks like we will head down the tried, tested and failed route again.