If Paul Mcshane gets picked over Houghton, I think my interest in the world cup will come to an end, does anyone know when the squad is announced

....12 o'clock today.

Thank you , should be interesting , Watts and Houghton a must for me

I'm not sure we'll have any players in there unfortunately.

Houghton has Hodgson in front of him, who's likely to start, and I think Bennett will take one of, or both Roby & Clarke to offer some impact from the bench. Houghton edges McShane for me, & has had a better year than Clarke, but I don't think Bennett will see any value in taking along an 80-minute hooker who's unlikely to start.

Taylor has been to the England team meet ups and I think he's our strongest possibility of a call up because of that.

Watts has been in the top 3 props in the league this year IMO, along with Walmsley & Millington, but one look at his disciplinary record might put Bennett off. A squad of 24 could have 6 props in there though, & there certainly isn't 6 better props than him.

Shaul has a chance because of the Hardaker situation, but Ratchford, Lomax & Tomkins are all likely to be picked ahead of him.

Houghton has no chance. Will be Hodgson, Roby and Clark

This is what I reckon Bennett will go with:

Lomax, Widdop, Williams, Gale, Hodgson, Walmsley, S.Burgess, Hall, Watkins, McGilvaray, O'Loughlin, Graham, Hill, Heighington, Roby, Clarke, Farrell, Whitehead, Bateman, G.Burgess, Tomkins, Percival, Shenton, Eden.

I'd prefer:

Lomax, Widdop, Williams, Gale, Hodgson, Walmsley, S.Burgess, Hall, Watkins, McGilvaray, O'Loughlin, Graham, Hill, Ward, Roby, Clarke, Currie, Whitehead, Bateman, Watts, Shaul, Percival, Shenton, Taylor.

Done some analysis of the stats between the full back candidates, and for me, it is a no brainer that Shaul should be in the squad:

Tries - Shaul = 17, Tomkins = 5, Ratchford = 1, Lomax = 8
Assists - Shaul = 4, Tomkins = 7, Ratchford = 12, Lomax = 11
Tackles - Shaul = 170, Tomkins = 85, Ratchford = 117, Lomax = 169
Missed Tackles - Shaul = 19, Tomkins = 9, Ratchford = 11, Lomax = 10
Tackle Busts - Shaul = 124, Tomkins = 21, Ratchford = 52, Lomax = 19
Carries - Shaul = 336, Tomkins = 112, Ratchford = 201, Lomax = 235
Metres - Shaul = 3199, Tomkins = 615, Ratchford = 1824, Lomax = 1708
Av. Gain - Shaul = 9.52, Tomkins = 5.49, Ratchford = 9.07, Lomax = 7.27
Clean Breaks - Shaul = 24, Tomkins = 2, Ratchford = 9, Lomax = 9
Runs from DH - Shaul = 103, Tomkins = 13, Ratchford = 45, Lomax = 23
Errors - Shaul = 29, Tomkins = 12, Ratchford = 24, Lomax = 19
Offloads - Shaul = 18, Tomkins = 8, Ratchford = 20, Lomax = 5

To me, Shaul would be picked all day long. His ability to cause danger when running the ball, is something England just don't have in their squad, and is probably the only player in the squad capable of seeing a gap and being through it before the defence can set. These stats also don't include the Challenge Cup

I fully expect Bennett to stick with the same players as before that have under performed here and in the nrl

Currie has been picked and only played 1 or 2 games all season! Tells you everything about the process that is wrong


Face fits/colour of your clubs shirt then your in

Good post, Joke if he doesn't get picked in front of them

Instead of Houghton?

He didn't get picked when he was Man of Steel. Highly unlikely he'll get picked this year.

Yep. Hodgson will start, and I'd prefer either of those two off the bench than Houghton.

Judas, your having a laugh aint you

Absolutely beggars belief. Three teams won silverware this year, and Warrington have more players in there than any of them.

4 wire players in the squad! shows you can be crap all year yet still be guaranteed an england jersey!

burgess! over-rated and over-hyped too!

graham shouldn't be in,been poor all season.bennetts an idiot

It's harder to get out of this England squad than it is to get in it.

Same old player will mean the same old result....defeat in the semis, which is effectively third in a three horse race.

Some shockers in there. Heighington & burgess twin we unfortunately knew would be in it, as he's been training with Graham, Widdop & Burgess the last few weeks.

Brown must have some incriminating pictures of Bennett.

Ratchford I assume was a late call up for Hardaker.

The squad looks as though it was picked months ago.


But, congratulations to Scott Taylor!

I'll stick up for tom burgess here, he was in good form before souths season ended and was getting back to his best form. however hill, brown and ratchford should not have been included - i would have had tomkins in before ratchford and watts for hill. kevin brown is the worst selection - if we don't have better than him we might as well not bother. i'm worried that his inclusion means bennett is thinking about moving widdop to full back to replace hardaker. widdop is our best half by some distance, it would be madness to move him. congrats to scott taylor

the other thing about shaul is that he can score a try through a brilliant piece of off the cuff play. the aussies are great at defending structured attacks, possibly not so good when coming up against maverick players (remember the problems benji marshall caused them, and sean long to some degree). shaul gives you that unpredictability. the argument against him is that he's not a pivot and can't pass well. i'm not sure the full back needs to have that in his game. i don't recall paul wellens and kris radlinski being particularly good at this. i would much prefer my full back to concentrate on support play and timing of runs and of course try scoring.

Wonder if the plan is to shift Widdop to full back with Williams and Gale at 6 and 7.

you think there's a plan?

same old same old as Gravy says, no ambition in that squad at all, nothing to get excited about, we already all know the out come

What 24 would you have picked? And would that be capable of beating Aus?