Sarginson is over rated in my opinion and should be nowhere near the England squad as a centre.

Widdop flatters to deceive as far as I can see. A good goal kicker but doesn't offer much else as a 6.

Gale was unfortunate on Saturday insofar as Hodgson did a lot of the kicking from dummy half and widdop was first receiver.

I would drop Widdop which then allows Gale to be the game manager, a role he undertakes for Cas to a very high level. You can then bring Williams in who offers more of a threat as a running 6 and you then imo have the right combination of skills in the halves

Unchanged bar Sarginson out, Percival in.

You can switch Williams and Widdop but I think the only advantage is that Williams is quicker. Other than that, I think they both have a pretty similar game. However, I would swap Gale to the left (where we attack the most) and also which is his most dangerous position.

I think he's been made the fall guy for some bad tactical decisions by the team on Saturday, along with some individuals taking it all upon themselves to go for glory. The ball went down the left far more than the right and it's clear we've been told to stick to some kind of rigid structure. When Gale did move across to be involved on the left we either scored, or we had great chances to score. Equally, the time we did go right it ended up with McGillvary going in at the corner.

If we don't put Gale on the left, I'd question what Denis Betts brings to the assistant coach role given the fact that he supposedly sees SL week in, week out and saw Gale rip him a new backside when Solomona scored 3 on last game of the season and the Gale/Solomona combination has yielded 42 tries in SL alone this season.

Cant argue with that.
Bennett must have a plan but, I dont see Widdop getting the axe. Unfortunately it could be Gale, which isn't exactly fair.
Ratchford may get in at FB, which should give us more attacking options. However, scoring against Scotland, although important, will be no indicator as to whether we will score against Australia and let's face it, that is the only game that matters.

I would keep the 17 the same or possibly just make one change with Farrell coming in for Bateman.

Sarginson didn't have the best game but I don't think Percival would have done any better or offers us anything else.

Well, considering even Wigan fans are saying Percival is a far superior centre...

I actually think this is exactly the time to make changes. In previous 4Ns we've seen the problems caused by having to pick players in the last game who haven't played previously - if anything it makes the incumbents even harder to shift regardless of how they play. Also, Bennett's main aim is the WC next year, and this tournament is really his only opportunity to see how well his players perform. Restricting that to 18 or 19 players in his squad won't help him in that regard.

That we are. I like Sarg, he a 110% player, tries too hard sometimes and ends up forcing it. He doesn't have the rugby brain and natural flair of Percival who I think is a quality centre. Sarg will give you the work rate, he'all take it in all day but we need more than that at international level. If Sarg does play it has to be at FB IMO, though that would be harsh on Lomax who wasn't great either but it was his first proper game at this level.

Especially if a certain number of those aren't performing.

graham out injured so id expect maybe scott taylor to come in as a direct replacement?

other than that cant see much else changing, maybe ratchford in for lomax at full back but sounds like bennett wants to keep changes to a minimum and get more game time for the big one against aussies week after

brierley fit to play for scotland after he took a knock v australia

how many tickets have been sold for this double header game?

Sounds like Williams, Farrell, Ratchford and a couple of others will get some game time. Bennett says two or three spots are up for grabs, so I assume he means maybe centre, one half-back spot and one in the pack...

Bennett said in an interview that he wants everyone bar Ward (who he said is not fit) to get game time. At the same time he said he didn't want to make too many changes so I'm not sure what team we will see against Scotland.

they've been suspiciously quiet with updates even the cheap seats aren't sold out. Can't see many deciding to go to Coventry at last minute with booth games on TV either. Would love to be proved wrong but this experiment doesn't seem to have paid off.

On a more positive note large parts of Anfield are now sold out for the final, with only the new upper tier still to be put on sale.