Would any of our players make a difference to the England team?

Marks out of 10 for England over the full tour,

S Tomkins (Wigan); 5
D Goulding (Wigan), 4
L Cudjoe (Huddersfield), 3
R Atkins (Warrington) 6
, T Briscoe (Hull); 4
S O'Loughlin (Wigan) 4
, L Robinson (Huddersfield) 7
; J Graham (St Helens, capt) 8
, J Roby (St Helens) 7
, S Burgess (South Sydney) 7
, G Ellis (Wests Tigers) 7
, J Tomkins (Wigan) 4
, B Westwood (Warrington). 5
Subs: S Lunt (Huddersfield) 5
, S Fielden (Wigan) 6
, E Crabtree (Huddersfield) 5
, B Harrison (Warrington). 4
R Hall (Leeds) 4
G Widdop NRL 5
G Carvell (Warr) 5
M Shenton (Cas) 7
K Brown (Hudd) 6
T Clubb (HRL) 8



Cannot think Steve Mc will get much more than a 4.

Think most of them went over there for a jolly Tompkins could not and did not get away with half of what he does and has done over here, thought man of the tournament for England was definately Robbo its a shame it ended the way it did for him, Brisco is still young, think Fox and Brisc should def have gone....

I doubt it,

I would have taken Fox, who is better than Goulding IMO though.

Watts is one for the future, but England are strong in the forwards.

Briscoe isn't good enough for international RL.

Having Eastmond, Mcguire, Bridge, Peacock and Sinfield would have made a big difference though.

Tomkins
Briscoe
Shenton
Bridge
Fox
Mcguire
Eastmond
Morley
Sinfield
Graham
Ellis
Burgess
O Louglin

Roby
Peacock
Crabtree
Westwood

Not a significant one in all honesty. Watts is one for the future, but isn't [uyet[/u as good as the incumbents. Fox would have done okay, but my assumption is that McNamara isn't that fussed about wingers coming in to help the forwards out as none of those selected did. Murrell is a decent option for a touring squad, but wouldn't get anywhere near the NwZ or Aus teams. Mind you, England had no kicking game, Brown did little enough at 6 and Roby looks very ordinary when his pack aren't dominating. Briscoe would have allowed Tomkins to play 6 or 7 in a squad that was short of halves - but Widdop should have covered that in theory.
A few selections were made with 2013 in mind, I guess. Not a disaster, but I'm not impressed to be honest. Good to see some new faces, but the balance of the squad seemed off to me. We mightn't have won, but we should have been closer IMO.

I stopped reading at this point.

You got that far, well done mate

i would have taken Martin Gleeson, hes still the best English centre in S/L IMO. our pack is good enough to compete but were so far behind in the backs though.

Atkins 6?
Westwood 5?

What do you watch? Atkins was dire a 3 would be generous. Westwood was a machine along with Graham and never stopped. You my friend are deluded!

If everyone was fully-fit my team would look something like this:-

Tompkins
Hall
Pryce
Gleeson
Fox

Eastmond
Brough

Graham
Sinfield
Peacock
Ellis
Burgess
Morley

Burrows
Westwood
Carvell
Crabtree

Problem positions for me have been 3, 4 & 7. Gleeson is our best centre by a mile and I'd shove Leon Pryce in the other centre slot cos the rest are poor though I think Briscoe could be a world class centre if Agar plays him there for his club.

Brough is admittedly pretty average but he is a traditional scrum-half with a consistent kicking game.

Play a 3rd prop @ loose-man, Burrows as a substitute hooker and steam-roller em up the middle with 5 drives/dummy-half scoots and a kick and I doubt the Aussies could stand up to it if England managed a completion rate of 80%+

Fec off upton cat. You are club going into the National league so what the hell do you know. Rovers site this so P off brain dead.

Any way the point to the post was how crap England where and if our players would make a difference.

=#FF0000Slightly excessive don't you think?

General.., i know everyone has there own ideas and teams but you cannot seriously suggest picking Rob Burrow as a sub hooker in place one of our very few players that come near the region of world class i.e James Roby...??? I can just about go with Sinfield based on last years four nations...but Burrow...???? He will be lucky to make the Leeds 13 next year given a fully fit squad...

And Roby is a shoe-in for any international team of the foreseeable future..

More of an utter spanner, I would think.

I'm generous of spirit.

Reet, I'll have a punt, and when you try, it's quite difficult.

Cudjoe.
Hall
Briscoe
Gleeson
Fox
Tomkins
Eastmond
Graham
Robinson
Peacock
Ellis
Westwood
Burgess

Roby
Morley
Crabtree
O'Loughlin

Still really not happy with that, and I've put at least a minute's thought into it. There has to be a place for Leon Pryce, he's our best runner in broken field but we do need to maximise our forward strength.

Thoughts? (Other than saying that's an utter shizzle team pmh)

Ditto Atkins was awful!!

I'd play Sinfield @ hooker for 55/60mins out of the 80 and utilise Burrows in a couple of 10/12min spells running up the middle - I think he'd be more effective than Roby in this specific role because of his lightening speed off the mark.

Really



I agree with sinfield, but to drop the best hooker by far with have for a player who has been poor for the last 2 years to play in a position that he doesn't play would be shocking choice.

I quite like Brough, but the best 2 halfbacks we have, if Tomkins is FB is Mcguire and Eastmond.

Problem you have with a half back pairing of Tompkins and Eastmond is neither are particularly good kickers. This is something we lack in England is a HB that can kick good field position with the exception of Brough (who's not that good in the other aspects of 7 play). Until we get a HB who can control a game game with good positional kicking we'll struggle, its no good having a good pack and then having a HB who kicks down the throat of Billy Slater all game.

Quote ="barham red
Problem you have with a half back pairing of Tompkins and Eastmond is neither are particularly good kickers. This is something we lack in England is a HB that can kick good field position with the exception of Brough (who's not that good in the other aspects of 7 play). Until we get a HB who can control a game game with good positional kicking we'll struggle, its no good having a good pack and then having a HB who kicks down the throat of Billy Slater all game.'"

Eastmond has a decent kicking game I have been quite impressed when i have sen him for Saints.

Most the kicking would be done by Sinfield, when he is on the pitch.

Deacon has a great kicking game, but was poor when he played for GB as the rest of his game like Brough's isn't good enough for the international games.

With the injuries I would have taken Brough to Aus this time though.

The problem I find with Eastmond is that if the going gets tough his game tends to go a bit awry and he tries to be superman. Rather then controlling a game by field position kicking and 'clever' plays he tries to pull off the spectacular. It'll come with age and experience I suppose.

I agree on the Brough, for all his failings he was the best option avalaible, and on his day can be deadly. I personally think that his faults at 7 are very similar to Robinson (although he did have a reasonable tour) but he has the superior kicking game (hence why he gets the 7 slot for hudds in front of robbo).

Will be interesting to see how Myler gets on this year, hopefully he will kick on this year and become the player he threatened to be at Salford. With a developed Myler and fit Eastmond at 6 & 7 and Tompkins at 1 we might see some improvement.

Of course Roby is a far superior hooker to Burrows but I'm talking a couple of very short 10/12min spells and I think Burrows would be quicker at finding the hole behind the ruck quicker than Roby.

Agree about McGuire but as Barham Red said, we need someone with a consistent kicking game cos is a joke year on year. It must be so depressing for our forwards who know they have the wood over the Aussie pack yet are let down by pathetic field kicking and inept backs.

I think we need a player who can play at halfback & be good at hooker like Luke Robinson (Burrows could do it) Roby should be there for most of the game but he needs a rest at times but England can,t have the luxury of two hookers in the 17 (even if we had two) If Murrel improves he might be good enough for the utillity spot. The biggest problem we have is that there is just not enough International fixtures to gain experiance.

Why???

It is surely better to have specialists in both positions. This clamour for multi positional players is killing the game over here, the end result being that they become totally ineffective.

Also there is no time to [igain experience at International level[/i, there are no practice runs. When you are picked for your country you are expected to do a job straight away based on your ability and the experience you have gained at club level.

Murrell at 6 would have given us a better option and a kicker. Think we are further behind the Aussies now then 5 years ago.