Yesterday got me thinking about the state of British hookers

I realise this is England and not GB but remember not too long ago GB having Cunningham, Lowes and Newton to pick from in that position

There is no one remotely close to that standard playing now it seems to me

Where has British hooking gone wrong?

Well, what did I learn on Saturday?

1) I will watch pretty much any RL if it's on normal telly.

2) Wales aren't good enough to provide anything other than an opposed training session.

3) It was a good opportunity to get some new combinations of players having a run out together.

4) There looked (and I know it's hard to tell from the outside) to be a more collegiate attitude to the squad than we've seen for a while. That, more than anything, is going to be the key to any chance we have of doing well next year. We know the Aussies and probably the Kiwis are going to be stronger on paper, so our only chance is to turn up with some of the team ethic that Leeds tend to show in September and October, everyone pulling together, watching each other's backs and totally committing to the same cause.

I did like the look of the Watkins-Charnley pairing. Hard to read too much into a match against poor opposition, but they seemed to have some understanding. I think I'd like to give that more game time before the World Cup. Both are, I believe, only going to be better this time next year.

Even against that opposition I still can't quite see Richie Myler as a very top class half back. I thought Ratchford looked the better player at Salford, haven't changed my mind. He's good, don't get me wrong I'm not going in for this exaggerated "he's crap" guff you get from rival fans, but I can't see him as an England regular.


Thinking about giving certain combinations game time, how many warm-up matches do we get ahead of the World Cup? I think we could do with at least 2, with a full squad to choose from, to get the combinations right.

Our approach to the World Cup has to be the David Brailsford small margins approach. We know where the Aussies are, we know what we've got at our disposal to take them on with, if we're going to have a chance we have to make sure we are able to get the absolute maximum out of the players available.

I watched it for 20 mins when I was at the gym. It was right in front of me on the wall. That's the only reason I saw any of that pointless fixture.

I'm struggling to ever think of an international player looking as much of a tit as McIlorum did. I assume he still thinks he is strutting around for Queens trying to impress birds on the touchline. If he had the talent he could let that do the talking. But he doesn't.

I get the impression England have worked hard on the technical aspects around the ruck, especially defence, but also on the psychological side. To such an extent that they seem unable to spin the ball out to the 3/4s at speed. We have some of the best back combinations I can remember, half backs excluded, but they don't seem to be clinical enough to match AUs/NZ at this stage.

I think Myler improved hugely this season after his injury, but still looked average. Brough is the only scrum half approaching the required standard, assuming Burrow is in there as a 9.

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Reed
Hall
Sinfield
Chase
S Burgess
Roby
Peacock (persuade him out of retirement)
Westwood
Ellis
O'loughlin

Graham
Hock
Widdop
G Burgess

rest of squad
Hardaker, T Briscoe, Ablett, Burrow, Mcllorum, Crabtree, Farrell