He has a very good offensive game, he needs to work more on his defence however he continues to improve, well deserved imo...pleased to see a local kid in the squad

I'm not getting the houghton hype. I think on too many occasions he takes the wrong options. I don't think he's the finished article and I hope he proves me wrong but at the moment for me he's a mile away from international honours.

Neither Houghton or Welham are international players for me. Watching St George last night they had Cooper and Gasnier in the centres, both of whom are miles better than anything in this country.

It looks a bit light on forwards to me - but add in the NRL's Ellis and Burgess and it looks more even.





People seem to use 'international standard' as a euphemism for 'good enough for the Kangaroos'. All the players in those squads are good enough to play for England, or close to it. Very few would be good enough to play for Australia, but sadly that is a standard of judgement that we can only aspire to - now and for the forseeable.

Eastmond is off to RU then, I guess.

what time is the press conference?

I think we're in danger of Houghton's development stalling if we're not careful. He has been thrust into the situation of being the senior hooker in the team before he's the finished article. To some extent I think the same happened to Yeaman.

why does danny brough want to play for england , i canny believe it man , Judas to all true scots

No whiting?

A bit fishy if you ask me

Im not surprised.

So what do we do, not play any centres until their better than their Aussie counterparts?

How the has Welham got in the squad and not Houghton/Yeamo? Baffles.

Yeaman?



Welham isn't in the squad in front of Houghton, they play in different positions.

I know he isn't in front of him, didn't say he was



Just makes me laugh that he even gets the time of day and they don't.

Why, he's playing well.

So is Yeamo. And Yeaman is far better.

In you're opinion, the only one what count here is McNamara's.

Maybe McNamara wants to pick players who are willing to travel overseas.

Aye, it's his opinion I'm questioning! Yeaman not a fan of travelling?

Depends who you listen to.

Yeamans a good Super League centre but he may not have much improvement in him. Welham has areas he needs to improve but he has the main attributes, mainly pace, to play at the highest level.

I would also argue that Yeamo has not been the same since Cooke, when he got decent ball. If he gets more ball quickly shipped to his wing, consistently, like in International RL, I'm sure we would see the best of him once again.

At least Atkins has been put in the Knights from the elite squad, he really is overrated pap.

It proves how little quality we have in Super League when players like Welham are one of our "Elite" ones.

Exactly what I think too.

My inference wasn't that we can't play centres until they're as good as their Aussie counterparts. What I was saying is that they have far superior players to the centres we have available for selection in this country. You can't honestly tell me that you think Welham is international class? Good enough for England he may be, but that doesn't make him international class.

Where's Manu ?

Looking at some of the names in the elite squad, we might as well abandon the international game. In the days when we were producing players of the calibre of Edwards, Gregory, Hanley, Newlove etc we couldn't manage to win a series, and we're not producing players of anything like that quality any more.