I am quite happy with the squad selection, think not picking Crabtree was the right decision because although he is a good player he just isn't aggressive enough, which is why I think hock and mcilorum is a good shout as they're Aggressive players who aren't afraid of getting stuck in to anyone and we need that in the side.

good exposure on Talk Sport too last night with McNamara and Tomkins on the show and then a lot of discussion about the squad

Ratchford will show on Saturday that he is one of the very best players in this country.

Could well pick up the Harry Sunderland trophy.

I'm happy with that squad. Lunt is unlucky to miss out, but the only bad choice (imo) is Tom Burgess over Crabtree. Tom isn't even cracking Souths' first team every week when his (pretty much average) brother Luke is.

Good squad, not massively different to what I would go with. I think it’s a pretty well balanced squad as well which possibly explains some of the omissions.

Lunt for example is a very good player, but what do you get from him? An inferior version of Roby in my opinion. Mcilorum on the other hand offers a different type of hooker, possibly not as skilful or as quick around the ruck as Lunt or Roby but bigger, stronger, and a lot more aggressive. Burrow on the other hand is a complete one off who can absolutely destroy a defence.

Similarly with Ratchford v Hardaker, Hardaker will cover you Fullback, Centre and Wing very well, Ratchford fullback centre and stand off. We already have a player capable of playing Fullback centre and Stand off in Widdop, plenty of half back cover with Sinfield and Chase, Tomkins, Burrow, that’s 5 pretty experienced halves, with Roby and O’loughlin able to fill in in a pinch, and if we got really really desperate Ablett has played there before. Im not sure we need another utility half. Whereas on the wing whilst we do have 3 wingers, but if one of them goes down we need to start shifting centres to wing and 2nd rows to centre.

In both those examples its not really a question of who is the better player, but who offers more to the 24 man squad.

The only out and out ‘decisions’ between players I see up for debate is T Burgess ahead of Crabtree, and Farrell ahead of Kirmond and Ferres.

I dont think anyone has doubted Farrell's inclusion.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24362723BURGII LATEST - Julie heartbroken over her and Luke's omission from England squad![/url

She was on Radio2 this morning too. Good work from the RFL PR team in the last couple of days.

A 19 man Knights squad has been named for the Samoa game

Ben Cockayne
Dom Crosby
Kieran Dixon
Chris Green
Josh Hodgson
Josh Jones
Ben Jones-Bishop
Michael Lawrence
Jonathan Lomax
Tom Makinson
Richard Myler
Sam Powell
Stefan Ratchford
Dan Sarginson
Brad Singleton
Scott Taylor
Iain Thornley
Liam Watts
Elliott Whitehead

In the backs, I think there are some good players who would grace the full England squad (e.g. Myler, Lomax, Jones-Bishop & Ratchford) but there is only Scott Taylor for me in the forwards who looks like he could step up

These Burgess Brothers are marketing gold. Just what RL has been missing for years. Players with Star Quality off the pitch.

So where does this leave Brett Feres, in so much that he's going to S Africa with the England WC Squad, albeit he's not in the squad, and neither is he in the Knights squad ?

I can understand that we need back-up players, but surely they should be in one squad or the other, not just left in the wilderness ?