Reed had Gasnier in his pocket all game tonight. Defensively he is head and shoulders over any SL centre.

Good to hear Reed is continuing to play well

Just to check though, is that the same Gasnier that Kirk Yeaman smashed out the game on his test debut in 2006 (when Gasnier was rated the best centre in the game and not two weeks away from retirement)?

we'll see

i guarantee theres gonna be "what a waste of time" or "he's no better that what we already have" topics/posts after everyone gets a proper look at him in a england shirt....and i promise i won't start any of them

Did he?
In that dead rubber where Australia were already in the final regardless of this games result?
Great Britain won 1 from 4 games.
Yeaman has kicked on since then after smashing (in your words) the best Centre in the World out of the game he has how many Test Caps now?

That win by England that all of the Pommies hang on to as a golden moment was the most nothing game in the last 20 years.
Australia were already in the final they rested some key players and were playing for nothing unless the heirachy said give the pommies a go it will be good for the International game.
The final between Australia and New Zealand was already locked in, it was a match that was a waste of time.

Gasnier is a shadow of what he once was.
Even at his peak he was a weapon on his day that could beat 4 players and change a game single handed but too often he was on cruise control and did not get involved enough.

Forget about Jack Reed. Wests Tigers' Chris Heighington added to England train-on squad.

Good. Another good player, the more we have to choose from the more chance we've got. England/GBs problem over the years has always been depth. We seem to have 15 or 16 good players and on paper our team looks competitive, then after a full season the Internationals come round and with 5 or 6 injuries we look god awful and you've got Farrell/Scully/Brown at 6 and Sinfield at 9 and players don't know whether they're coming or going. Now we seem to have 4 or 5 decent players in each position.

we don't need chris Heighington..we have enough backrowers and if Heighington was good enough he'd be playing origin

Cannot believe anyone has not mentioned Cudjoe for a wing spot. Has really come on defensively the last year, very good at taking the high ball and quick. Depending on his injury i would put him in the mix with Hall and Briscoe.

As much as a like Charnley his defence needs another season.

Cudjoe should be in the squad but would be behind Hall, Briscoe and Charnley when talking about wingers.

"Overnight, England announced they had their man, following weeks of calls between Reed and English coach Steve McNamara. Kath Reed said the past few weeks had been a whirlwind for her and husband Joe, and they were surprised by the decision after seeing Jack grow up with dreams of wearing the green and gold. "I haven't got a clue what changed his mind," she said. "He said he'd been thinking about it and if the opportunity arose he wanted to play for England." www.couriermail.com.au/questnews ... 6138714219

"Overnight, England announced they had their man, following weeks of calls between Reed and English coach Steve McNamara. Kath Reed said the past few weeks had been a whirlwind for her and husband Joe, and they were surprised by the decision after seeing Jack grow up with dreams of wearing the green and gold. "I haven't got a clue what changed his mind," she said. "He said he'd been thinking about it and if the opportunity arose he wanted to play for England." www.couriermail.com.au/questnews ... 6138714219

Tom Briscoe, Kris Welham and Kirk Yeaman added to England train-on squad alongside Reed and Heighington.
Arundel, Broughton, Cox, Donaldson, Gale, Houghton, Ratchford, M Smith, Taylor, Watts, Westerman added to England Knights squad.

You could already pick a pretty decent English backline from that list

I would suggest that a back line of Briscoe, Yeaman, Reed and Broughton is at least as good as the one that contested the last world cup semi final... Gardner, Gleeson, Senior, Calderwood