Not in the halves though ??

Sinfield was a great player and even better captain for Leeds but, he was never good enough as an international HB.
Sculthorpe again, a fantastic player but, the fact that he (and Andy Farrell) played #6, shows just how long it has been since we had a pair of top quality halves at international level.

Bosc is bang average. If he was better than English halves, why does Myler and before him Pryce get picked ahead of him regularly. Myler isn't good enough for England but still above Bosc, not just my opinion but that of his own coach.

Sinfield would be be a great asset to this current group. We lacked game management, kicking in general play and leadership all of which he brings. Sinfield was good in the 2013 WC, the only real time he had a good squad around him since his early days. Look at the England squads we had from 2007 to 2012 they were really poor compared to now and he unfairly took the brunt of the blame.

with him in this team we would have got the draw against the Kiwis minimum and not have missed two kicks to touch in that first half as well as some awful kick plays which gave the Aussies field position.

Theodore Fages has been named as a starting half for 2017 by the powerful St. Helens club. He will partner Matthew Smith.

Scotlands half backs are better than the French!

Hang on a minute....
With 90 seconds to go in the world-cup semi-final, rather than kick the ball into touch (he was 10m from the touchline) Sinfield decided to loop the ball perfectly so the NZ full back could launch a counter attack. He then managed to jump out of the line like a schoolboy, allowing Shaun Johnson to waltz through a massive hole to score the winning try.
I thought Sinfield was a fantastic player and probably the most consistent in the SL era. But to claim he would have made a difference given his prior performance against NZ doesn't make sense.

Had to have a little laugh to myself there. Saw the title of the thread and immediately knew that it was the hypothetical Frenchman that started it!

Also France are rubbish...

Apart from that, he's been class for England
Seriously though, he was never an international standard HB, even Leeds only played him in the halves as if they were short and he wasnn't quite big enough to be an England L/F

As I said, a great captain for Leeds but not an England HB

Give over man, Sinfield was never International class!... thank goodness he is no longer keeping the likes of Brown, Widdop and Gale out of the team

His was is built on an astute kicking game and managing the players on the field and not around having a burst of pace or having guile and trickery to open up the opposition defence.

As far as being a class half back, he couldn't lace Andy Gregory's boots although, sadly, we haven't had anyone of his standard in an England (or GB shirt) for the best part of 30 years.

How ever good he was for Leeds and he is certainly one of their all time greats, he is not and was not and England (or GB) great.

It's conveniently forgotten that he was one of England's top performers in that game. Shaun Johnson has waltzed around most NRL players at some point so I wouldn't say that incident is necessarily a barometer of Sinfield's performance that day.

Yes, he has. Including Greg Inglis, who you just *don't* waltz round.

All the more reason, then, not to jump out of the line at him, as a player of Sinfield's experience should have known.

Maybe, but the post I responded to suggested that his game management and kicking game could have seen England home against NZ in October.
I simply pointed out that when it really mattered, his shocking last-play kick gave NZ the platform from which to launch the winning attack if the game. I almost understand his desire to shut Johnson down before he could attack the line (even though it was an awful decision for a seasoned professional) but I have no idea what he was thinking when he decided to keep the ball alive in the last minute when England were clinging on.

I think the fact Sinfield playing at halfback for England for so long summed up the awful options we had and still have at halfback. But they're better than the Frenchies.