Quote: madasmcmadammcmad2 "Just going back to sinfield,my point about playing him at No6/half back is that the opposition know he his just going to pass the ball on or kick on the last tackle,he's never gonna do a Roger Millward/Alan Hardisty and dummy then go the length of the field which means he's easier to defend against as they can just lay off him.
Just my thoughts.'"
Which is a fair point. However I would counter that with the idea that the reason Leeds work so well is that they have the organiser, the puppeteer, in Sinfield. The one that guides the team around, dictates the plays and organises very very well. Then they have the flashy, off-the-cuff, break out of nowhere halfback to complement that, in Danny McGuire (or Burrow when McGuire is out). There's a reason they chose not to play Sinfield & Sutcliffe together in the halves this year, instead swapping Burrow and Sinfield around between halves and hooker, to accomodate Sutcliffe (who is in a very similar mould to Sinfield).
Addy plays a similar role for us when he's at 6 (albeit not as well as Sinfield), which I believe is one of the reasons we looked better this year with Addy & Sammut, rather than when Gale was in the side.
I have absolutely no problem playing Sinfield at 6 for England. I think it's the right thing to do. But the 7 that plays with him MUST be one of those players like you describe. If you played another "organiser" type half, then exactly what you describe will happen. Which is why the most likely combo will be Sinfield & Chase I think.
As far as Brough goes, I agree with the idea of him being like Sammut. When Brough hits form, he's outstanding. And he's hit form in most games this year, hence the accolades. He does have that inconsistency though, where if he starts off badly, he either goes missing, or completely messes everything up. It's that same dilemma of whether you want to risk him having a bad game and you losing because of it, in order to have that chance of him having a good game and winning you the match almost single handedly.