What's happening in the NRL, are they going to have players serving bans in squads for 2nd tier competition, are their governing body overseeing bans with the same conflict of interest as the RLF?

Tawdry as it is this is exactly the kind of thing the Aussies would do (and have done) so, even though it's not a good look, I'm ok with it.

The more important question is whether Bateman should be in the England squad at all but we know how obsessed Wane is with his Wigan boys

Also, RLWC I don't mind you sending me emails but please don't send ones where 'Headingley' is misspelled in the title. We've only been playing RL games there for 127 years.

oh just let him off altogether like they have done with Knowles. Rugby League is totally corrupt and I really couldn't care less if England go out at the first stage, can't support a team with the likes of Tomkins in it anyway

Yep. The NZ game against Leeds counts towards JWH's ban

Slightly different in that bateman has been chosen in a squad for which he'll never play at the expense of another player who could.

Didn't some irish squad players in previous years have dubious irish ancestry,or do l have that wrong?

Bentley has already played a few times for Ireland but as this is RL that may mean nothing. It wouldn't surprise me if the RFL let you play a half for each country in the same game!

I’m going to go with -

England - Hardaker, Handley, Oledzki, Smith, Leeming.
Ireland - O’Connor, Bentley
Cook Islands - Tetevano
PNG - Martin

With all those possibly selected on top of injuries and having a small squad, how are we fulfilling a fixture v NZ?

When the fixture was announced I don't think anybody at the club thought we'd be contesting a Grand Final.

Yeah I just wonder how we're still going to do it.