Watkins development has been hampered by serious injury but the kid is still only 20 years old

I think he has all the attributes to become an absolutely top class centre – he is athletic and skilful which is a combination we don’t often produce in this country... it is usually one or the other

If he is back from injury, I would have him in the England squad this year to get him used to the setup and training with the squad. Whether he plays or not is down to fitness and form

An awful lot can happen in two years but if Watkins plays out a couple of seasons for Leeds I think a 22 year old Watkins, bigger and stronger, would be a great asset in the Rugby League world cup come 2013

would definitley not have that 3 quarter line together. Briscoe is not the best winger, might stick charnley on one wing but centres we have been weak in them for years. heres another thrown in at half back is Jonny Lomax worth a shout been quite good all year?

Everybody is entitled to their own opinions but for the life of me I cannot see why anybody would choose Charnley in front of Briscoe for a wing spot

Charnley is not a bad player at all and better than some we have had on the wings for England/GB in recent times but Briscoe is bigger, stronger and faster than Charnley. For me is defensively sounder, able to bring the ball away from his own line and score tries that other wingers wouldn’t come close to either near the line or 90 metres out. Plus, he seems to be have been around forever and still only 21

Lomax, I fully agree with - top class player

I know, absolute nonsense.

If SL teams are targetting Tomkins/Charnley as a weak link, I dread to think what Australia/NZ would do to them.

I'm with my fellow Reds fan, regarding Gibson anyway, he's been absolutely terrible this season. We'd have been better signing an actual revolving door, rather than the proverbial. When I see his name on the teamsheet, you just know his side will leak tries.

As for Broughton, going forward, he's better than all those mentioned on this thread. One problem, if he was put in the England side, the Aussie's would destroy him! Danny Williams though, how Hull KR let him slip through their fingers is beyond me, I mentioned this previously, he's already used to defending a broken line and generally makes the right plays, both in attack and defence. With time he should get an England shirt.

Broughton wasn't full time at Hull & Leeds.. IIRC he wanted to finish his degree and was still working part time.... Salford then offered him a full time professional contract where he has been excellent... One player i wouldn't have minded keeping in all honesty but with the emergence of Tom Briscoe he wasn't such a viable option.. V.Good player though IMHO.

1. S Tomkins
2. T Briscoe
3. Yeaman
4. Reed/ Bishop
5. Charnley
6. Widdop/Lomax
7. Brough

They're not the weak link, Deacon is. Teams would much rather take on Deacon/Hansen/Tomkins/Charnley than Finch/Hoffman/Carmont/Richards.

did you even read the rest of my post?

i've gone with club partnerships,charnley-tomkins & briscoe-yeaman because they happen to be the best all english pairings we have...

why keep sticking failed pairings together? when we have 2 successful pairing playing together week in week out

is sticking jack reed/atkins/bridge/shenton with charnley or briscoe gonna be more effective,in attack & defence, than pairing them with the they've played with all year....no it ain't!


lomax is defo worth a shout though

Tomkins is not a Test grade Centre.
He will be targeted and be found wanting badly.

He's still better than Shenton at centre though.

I’m not too sure I buy into this club partnership argument

If the best centre and winger were coincidently from the same club it would be a nice bonus but I think we have to play the best team we can (not the best 13... i.e. don’t play people out of position)

Reading the game defensively is pretty much the same whether you play for the same team or not and I’m very sure that Briscoe and Charnley would love to play outside of centres who give them better ball in attack that Yeaman and Tomkins respectively – Yeaman is by no means a wingers centre as he holds the ball too often and, as someone has stated previously, Tomkins continuously takes Charnley’s line forcing him inside

It could easily be argued that it is more valuable to have an international half back partnership from the same club or a 9 from same club as the rest of the front row so they understand his dummy half play

All in all, I would pick the best team we can muster – again, playing people in their club positions – and expect international players to have the quality to gel as a team

Tomkins' defence at centre is pretty poor. Think he's worth a place in the 17 though.

Absolutely laughable. He's nowhere near as good. He would be a good backrower in the Lee Gilmour mould. Strong, relatively quick, but he's utterly mindless and is very poor defensively.