Bridge is Lee Smith but bigger and probably quicker.
I'd have started him there tbh

Im sure if Ryan Atkins was fit he would have been in squad and would have played ahead of Shenton.

dont quite understand why shenton is coming in for some flak,tbh he`s done little wrong, defencively he`s been solid whilst in attack he has had no service whatsoever from the halves.

the problem is england dont have a newlove or a senior which we have had for the past 15 years who can bust a tackle and im not sure where we are going to get one from in the near future and ryan atkins isnt the answer.

Only if tony smith was a fool, shenton and hall combined to keep the aussies scoreless down that side, not that many english centre-wing combinations can say that agains the aussies in recent times. Not that atkins is a bad centre, i would have put him there ahead of smith (who as the leeds fans will tell you has never been a centre and has only been filling in for leeds).

Im a Cas fan, i think Shenton is a very good player with many years ahead of him, i love to see Cas players involved in international rugby, but i do believe that Atkins would have been in ahead of him, this judgement not being based on Shentons 4 nations form. And i think that Shenton and Atkins are the England centres for years to come taking over from Gleeson and Senior, especially with Smith departing to union.

thats a pretty depressing thought to be honest

The only other worth a shout would be Bridge, and also Welham and Lawrence could be future candidates.

How does this square with you being unconcerned at Leeds' importing of overseas trained players increasing to seven for the 2010 season set against the RFL's limit of six?

Bridge could turn out to be a class centre at domestic level. You'll see next year, although he doesn't really have an outstanding quality such as electric pace or sheer brute size though, the best aspect of his game is his ability to step and get his winger away, certainly never going to be an inglis

Depends on your point of view, both those players had the talent but i think both lacked commitment to england/gb (simply my opinion of course) when it came to england/gb, and never put as much heart and soul as say mcdermott, radlinski, peacock, anderson etc.

I'm happy to see two players who seem more commited to representing their country, and will cheer them on whenever they represent my country.

Prior to the match I advocated Smith's inclusion at centre. He's quick, adaptable and has the knack of playing well in big matches. I can't think of too many SL players who tick the same boxes.

That said, his performance was uninspiring. In defence he was at best a speed bump and he won't have caused Australian nightmares with ball in hand, either.

Needs to lift his game. Fast.

The ONLY reason Shenton gets stick on here is because he plays for Cas and it's pathetic, this is a player who was the top scoring centre in the league last year and made 27 tackles against the Aussies last week, yet some people are still saying he isn't good enough to play for England when over the last 2 years he's outplayed every centre he's played with the exception of probably 2 games (Saints & Leeds away this year). If he played for Leeds or Saints people would be praising him as the best centre in the league etc etc.

Shenton did nothing wrong. But he was hardly a danger to the Australians in attack. The fact that they favour the left hand side going forward was his good fortune. The jury's out on whether he'd cope under the same pressure that Smith faced.

He's worth a punt for a few games – but let's not go bananas over him yet.

I'm not suggesting that we play him at centre but when he came on Ben Westwood did a great job in shutting down Australias left side attack.

Next season we will have Senior, Coady, Watkins and an Aussie as our cover for the centre position. 3 out of 4. Not as good as 4 out of 4 that we provided Smith to choose from this year but still better than many other clubs.