Glad my rant has lead to some positive discussion! Giving the younger players a chance this tour means that at least next time round we have a bigger pool of players with international experience to choose from, can't be a bad thing, will create some healthy competition for a few places in the side. It goes without saying that we don't have the depth of the Australian's have but there are several young lads who have had a taste of international rugby and hopefully this can help motivate them to keep working hard and developing their games to keep themselves involved on the international scene. There is a good balance in this team and there seams to be no real egos in the team, perhaps bar Ryan Atkins who by some accounts is a bit of a playboy.
Looking ahead I think the two positions in need of most attention are for another centre to go alongside Shenton and a creative scrum half with a good kicking game. I have put together a list of players I feel are in contention for each position looking to the future:
Full Back: Sam Tomkins, Leroy Cudjoe
Wings: Peter Fox, Darrel Goulding, Ryan Hall, Richard Owen, Tom Briscoe, Lee Smith
Centres: Michael Shenton, Chris Bridge, Martin Gleeson, Ryan Atkins, Josh Charnley, Michael Lawrence
Halfbacks: Gareth Widdop (he will be most likely featuring for Melbourne at 6), Kyle Eastmond, Leon Price, Danny Mcguire, Luke Robinson, Kevin Brown, Danny Brough, Richie Myler
Props: James Graham (hopefully with NRL experience), Jamie Peacock, Adrian Morley, Sam Burgess, Eorl Crabtree, Bryn Hargreaves, Liam Watts, Louis McCarthy Scarsbrook
Hooker: James Roby, Shaun Lunt, Michael McIlorum, Scott Moore
Second Row: Gareth Ellis, Joel Tomkins, Gareth Hock, Ben Westwood, Elliot Whitehead, Ben Harrison (would benefit his career massively to go to NRL), Joe Westerman
Loose Forward: Kevin Sinfield, Sean O'Loughlin
I will have a few missed players out who will be in contention but I suspect this list will contain the majority of the next England team selected. If we create a national pool and stick the likes of these in a train on squad it should create some good competition for international places