Quote: tigertot "Matty Smith is way off international class, but with the squad I'm not sure of the alternatives. Tomkins & Widdop have more flair but possibly less structure. Ratchford & Widdop? I'm not convinced HB is Ratchford's best position. Whitehead & Ferres for SR, Farrell is not big enough.'" Whitehead has missed 5X the number of tackles that Farrell has, and Farrell makes more clean breaks than either Whitehead or Ferres. Whitehead is in the top 10 for tackles missed, can we really afford to have someone so poor defensively playing against Aus or NZ? Being bigger doesn't mean being better. www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/1927 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/2228 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/10147

Quote: tigertot "Matty Smith is way off international class, but with the squad I'm not sure of the alternatives. Tomkins & Widdop have more flair but possibly less structure. Ratchford & Widdop? I'm not convinced HB is Ratchford's best position. Whitehead & Ferres for SR, Farrell is not big enough.'" Whitehead has missed 5X the number of tackles that Farrell has, and Farrell makes more clean breaks than either Whitehead or Ferres. Whitehead is in the top 10 for tackles missed, can we really afford to have someone so poor defensively playing against Aus or NZ? Being bigger doesn't mean being better. www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/1927 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/2228 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/10147

Widdop was in the running for the Dally M medal (finished 5 or 6th if memmory serves), he has to be the first choice in the halves.

Widdop and Smith in the halves for me. Widdop’s played very well for the Dragons this year until a bit of a slump toward the last few weeks.

Tomkins defending in the line would be a defensive nightmare.

Backrow is a conundrum. I’d have Farrell in there for his workrate and he misses very few tackles. He needs to be alongside with a bit of an attacking threat. Ferres didn’t look out of place last year but hasn’t looked great for Hudders. J Tomkins hasn’t been back long enough for me to see if he’s up to it but he does offer some pace and versatility. Whitehead is great with ball in hand but still a defensive liability.

I’d go for

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Shenton
Hall
Widdop
Smith
G,Burgess
Hodgson
Graham
J,Tomkins
Farrell
O’Loughlin

Clark
T,Burgess
Ferres
Hill

Smith will pass, which he does quite well, & kick, which he does less well. That's it, he doesn't create & he doesn't support breaks, as he lacks the pace. If Tomkins is up to it at HB he should start with Widdop. Do a job is polite for average. I accept that, if Brough is Scottish, there's not much else.

Farrell is a brilliant club player but not big enough at international. How many world class players of his size can you remember? We are not going to win the games by trying not to lose them.

I'd have Ferres in ahead of Joel Tomkins based upon the great showing he made at last year's world cup and Shenton over Sarginson but otherwise Schofield's 17 looks pretty good.

Tomkins' defence in the line worries me less than his defence at fullback. DCE and Cronk are deadly accurate with both high and cross-field kicks, neither of which Tomkins deals with particularly well.

Both Cronk and Cherry-Evans seem to have so much time when kicking it seems putting pressure on the kicker in the NRL isn't such a high priority. Perhaps if we could exert some pressure on either of these two we might blunt their effectiveness

Yep. Agree with that.

Yep agree with that. I think kick pressure is something we do more of over here. Whether we'll have the energy to do it is another matter, but I think it could be a way of giving ourselves a good chance of beating them.

I think we will struggle defending simple second man plays out wide and I think we will suffer from a lack of creativity/control in the halves. Whether he plays Tomkins or Smith alongside Widdop neither give you real creativity. Watkins needs to up his game otherwise we will have no way of breaking Australia/NZ down out wide.

I am looking forward to seeing if England can build on what was a pretty positive WC

Widdopp will offer control down the left and has an OK kicking game. The issue with our passing out wide is creating the space. There's no point in getting the ball to Watkins if every time he gets it he's face to face with Inglis.

Pressuring DCE/Cronk when they kick is one thing, but the chances of actually getting to them without giving away penalties are slim.

Yep. It's something Senior was expert at. Changing his line at the last minute.