Its ok everyone, all this doesnt matter as we have new nutrional drinks that will save the day. Praise the lord

Needs to be Liquid Schwartz if we are to stand any chance at all.

I would go with Widdop at SO and McGuire at SH with Sinfield at LF.

1. Tomkins
2. Hall
3. BJB
4. Reed
5. Briscoe

6. Widdop
7. McGuire

8. Morley
9. Roby
10. Peacock
11. Ellis
12. Westwood
13. Sinfield

14. Chase
15. Carvell
16. Ablett
17. Bailey

18. JJB

I guess you'd prefer Stephen Fry to start against Australia then? Maybe he can craft a reasonsed argument to convince their front row not to smash down the field or tackle our forwards.

Jesus.

Phil Clarke seemed to think that with the slow play of the ball England will fair better. Not so sure myself. 10 easy metres from DH will not happen. Think we will struggle either way.

Let's all go back to school days & pick the best & hardest player to be captain, irrespective of his abilities to communicate with the officials or his team.

No what we should do is ignore a player who is one of the fiercest competitors, has been one of the most successful players of the super league era, and who leads by example, because he has a speech impediment.

At the end of the day, in an Egland team there will be a number of leaders on the pitch, regardless of who flips the coin at the start of the game

It's nothing to do with a speech impediment FFS. I infer, therefore, that you are saying Peacock is a better captain than Sinfield? There was a crucial moment in test v NZ, 2 or 3 years ago when, on their line, the useless Wilkin (IIRC) had a tussle with Brent Webb. It ended with Webb hitting Wilkin in the head with the ball. The ref penalised GB & took no action against Webb, a ridiculous decision IMO. Peacock was so upset by this I thought he was going to cry, he just looked at the ref but couldn't utter a single word due to his frustration. Do you think that would have ben the outcome if Sinfield had been captain? Peacock has been one of the greatest players in the world of the last 10 years & has largely overcome crippling shyness but the days of picking a captain on the basis that he leads by example should be over when there are clearly better alternatives.

On the pitch I agree that Sinfield is probably a better presence, and more eloquant. He's able to get his point across to a referee without sounding disrespectful.

However, Sinfield has not been a cast iron selection for England GB throughout his career, and I would suspect that this is the main reason for his non-inclusion. As Peacock advances, and (hopefully) new blood comes into the front row Peacock will be less and less guaranteed a place.

My preference would be to have a captain who is on for the full 80 (or near enough) and is a guaranteed selection. Those players are pretty few and far between, and of those that are there, we could only consider one or 2 captain material.

My ideal would be Sam Burgess playing at 13 as captain, but that was not feasible this year.

That was the point of my original post & what Keith was saying. If Sinfield plays he has to call all the shots. He is neither the best SO or 13 (though the more obvious alternatives are injured) we have, but is head & shoulders above everyone else as a captain.

If Sinfield had been captain, the outcome would have been the same. Do you think a well-worded Sinfield speech would have caused the ref to reverse his decision?

FOr the record, JP speaks perfectly eloquently and intelligently when he isn't on camera. I don't think he likes the media spotlight. I'd bet his speeches to his team are a bit different. I also like leaders who do things by example. Miles better than frilly words. As alluded to above, there are plenty of talkers in the England team already. Non-issue for me.

More than likely. I've seen Sinfield talk to refs aplenty but, off the top of my head, can't think of any decisions that were reversed as a result. Besides, Webb deserved some benefit for bouncing a ball off Wilkin's head. Just a pity it wasn't a water bottle, boot, brick etc

For me Widdop to replace Yeaman at centre and Carvell on the bench. Otherwise same team.

Something else for him to moan about

Just slightly off topic, but about the England team all the same. Personally I just don't see the big thing about this Heighington fella. Seen nothing in him in the two games played to suggest he is any better for the role than others.

Would peronally prefer Sinfield at 13, but if the coaches decide 6 is best, then I would go for Ellis at 13 instead of Heighington, and bring Ablett in. IMO Ablett looks better than him.

Apologies if this upsets the NRL apologists, but I often see players written off for England after just one below par performance, so why shouldn't this guy be?

The only thing I noticed was that he got smashed by one of the welsh in the first half, then went off for quite a long time soon after. Not overly impressed so far.