pretty much agree on all counts except some refinement on the dummy runner rule and their engagement with the oppostion because often they're not interferring at all just confusing the defence.

Is that the best you can come up with?



It seems that when god was handing out brains Paul M thought he said trains and asked for a slow one.

Reed and Hall both play left too.

Watch oursplay on the right, or even be split up

Looks a strong side apart from the ridiculous bench and Sinfield at SO FFS !!!

I think it looks a pretty good side on paper and i reckon if the coach sticks with yeamo and brisc on the left for the tourney they could do a decent job and do some damage down that side....but i am bias

that's what happens when a coach picks a nice balanced team of 2 left wingers and 2 left centres in a threequarter line!

Reeds played a few games on the right this season, probably more than Yeamans done in his full career.

Macmanara would have to be a idiot to split them up or move them.

Well done to both on making the line up and I hope they both have good games!

Firstly I think it's Heighington's Father, not Mother. Secondly, he's played City/Country and for the Prime Minister's XIII, so it's clear that his first choice was that he wanted to play for Aus. Thirdly, has he even been to this country before?

Heighington's inclusion is every bit as wrong as Chase and Fa'asavalu before them IMO.

The thing with the likes of Brough/Carvell/the Horne brothers etc. though, is that the stupidity was them playing for the nations other than England as a way to pretend that there was a wider international game. They all kept GB allegiance for the games that counted, so the home nations teams were essentially viewed by players like NSW/Queensland, as a way to press your claims for an international shirt. They therefore did what they had to to put themselves in the shop window. It wasn't their fault that the RFL then pulled the rug from under them with the ridiculous decision to ditch the GB format, and they all found themselves possibly looking like being left out of contention for what is essentially still the GB team under a different name.

I still remember seeing a GB side with 4 loose forwards in it. Sculthorpe at stand off, Sinfield hooker, Farrell second row, and Forshaw actually at loose man.

Not the same argument (because he does get picked for his own nation's side), but I was equally against it when it was being mooted.

My personal stance is that if you go down the route of exploiting as many loopholes as possible it just essentially becomes another club. In that case we might as well stop pretending rugby league has an international game beyond NZ vs Australia and just wrap up the England team.

You're actually embarrassing.

There are plenty of them about at the minute

Feck me, the blokes got English blood in him. What have the other two got? Bet you still class Ryan Giggs as an Englishman?

How do you get English blood?

Well....with NZ being 2 Islands almost entirely populated by Maori and European settlers, it's is highly likely Rangi has some "English" blood too, especially given the fact that Chase is an English surname. Of course England itself has many different bloodlines including Scandanavian, French and Celtic. I think that's why we have to accept that nationality is a mindset, rather than a genealogical matter. If an English resident is here legally, and claims to be English - who are we to question that? The question should be "Is he good enough for England", and as the MOS, you'd have to say he is.

If chase were the organising scrum half we desperately need then there may have been a reason to consider picking him. As it is, widdop is a better option at stand off anyway.

reed was born here so I don't have an issue with him playing but has heightington ever even set foot in the UK?

With regarding 'born here' what if someones parents, let's say German, where in England when the wife gave birth. The very next day they drove back to Germany.

The child never sets foot in England again, can't speak English and doesn't consider himself to be English. Can he then play for our national side because of where he was born?

Depends how good he is







reed was born here as his family were English and emigrated. Same situation as widdop. chase is just a new zealander who has no chance of ever representing the country of his birth

If you go back far enough, most Aussies have 'English blood' in them.

My point wasn't that he doesn't have an English heritage in his ancestry, it's the fact that he doesn't appear to have ever been compelled to act on it before now. I can see it with Reed because he's picked England right off the bat, even with SOO interested, but Heighington is only doing it because he has tried and failed to get picked for SOO/Australia, the same as Chase with NZ.

And a better football analogy would be picked from Ireland's USA '94 squad (you have several to choose from).

Only if he drinks tea instead of coffee (which would also make him eligible for India and China).

The bare facts of the matter is that Reed is English, Heighington is Half English, whereas Rangi?? That's what makes it wrong imo.

Bet if Chase wins the Final for us a small few will change their opinion of the whole thing.

No worries about it happening though lol