Not in the top five list but if Luke Burgess continues his level of performance from last season he'll be in the England reckoning.

The fact we have no half back consistantly mentioned speaks volumes.

This though toss between roby & jammer

No one's mentioned O'Loughlin.

For me, like Westwood, he's a guy who can move his game up to international level with little disruption.
I do wonder whether having him and Sburgess in the squad would have helped when the likes of Thaiday and Gallen started getting on top of our pack in the Final.

I think we missed O'Loughlin massively in this tournament and having him and Burgess in over say, Heighington (who was very disappointing imo) and Wilkin (had a decent 4N but not in same class as Lockers or Burgess), we would have had a pack that was able to deal with Thaiday/Gallen etc a lot better.

It is difficult to mention him as one of England's best players though when he has played so little for them due to end of season ops. As long as he's fit he could be a massive player for us in next year's world cup though.

Felt a bt dissapointed with Ellis, he played well in all the latest matches, but I expected a world class performance from him especially as he,s had a good few seasons in the NRL. An injured Graham put in much better performances than Ellis. So for me in order
Graham
Tomkins
Roby
Hall
Reed

The problem is that we have about half a team (maybe more if everyone is fit) of real quality. We have a number of other players that can 'do a job', but against Australia that's not enough - especially at halfback.

We've probably got a 17 that is reasonably competitive with the Aussies, the two main problems are there arent enough top class players to cover injuries in key positions and the coach is way out of his depth.

The Aussies can lose Slater and bring in Boyd or Dugan or Hayne. They could lose Thurston and bring in Cronk or Cherry-Evans. We don't have this luxury. We lost O'Loughlin and had to pick a player with an English father who'd never been over here before. If Tomkins or Roby were injured there wouldn't anyone of anywhere near the same standard to step up.

Well there's that and the fact we don't have a half back of sufficent quality.

I'm biased, but I think Lomax would have had more success at 7 than chase.
I'm not saying he's of the desired quality, yet, but maybe in the future... .... ...

I think a Widdop and Lomax halfback partnership has real potential, plus 2 young players who could be around for a long time. No doubt McBanana will stick with Sinfield and Chase though!

Tomkins
Burgess
Ellis
Read
Widdop

Note 4 out of 5 play in the NRL. Read in to that what you will.

tomkins
ellis
hall
graham
burgess

please, no more talk of chase or sinfield, both are great club players but, neither of them are world class

Hall
Roby
Burgess
Ellis
Graham.

As good a prospect Tomkins is, he was rather found out against the Aussies.

Hall just sneaks it above another forward.

I disagree that we have a 17 who are very competitive with Australia. Our 'best' 17 minus probably only Sam Burgess got smashed in the 4N final. Apart from Burgess all the other players who could have been used would at best have been marginally better than those picked.

Our halfbacks are way behind the Aussies, but its also the way they play the game across the field. As well as being great players, Lockyer/Thurston get so much time and space and look light years ahead because of the way the rest of the team plays around them.

I tend to agree, but I don't think its a problem of talent.

Someone once posted on here that if you do 100 things 1% better than you opponent, you'll win the game and, for me, that's the main difference between us and the aussies. They're just that little bit better than us at every little thing. That's why, even if the scores are close, it always looks as though we're hanging on and they're mearly biding their time.