He fell out with Ryan Atkins as well, stopped picking him for England and he's never been the same player since.

He's been one of the best halves in SL this season. Think he's scored about a dozen tries, got over twenty five try assists, made only about twenty five errors as well as being the top points scorer in the comp.

The problem is, Widdop is a shoe in and rightly so. Then we have Hardaker and Tomkins who both need to be in pivotal positions, which leaves no room for Gale. And out of the 4, he is 4th best.

Haven't seem much of Widdop this year, but is he can organiser with a kicking game?

If not having Tomkins and him in the halfs wouldn't work, as you really need that role.

I'd have Gale in there, I just wish Powell was the coach.

I don't think Widdop should be a shoe in. He's certainly not been playing like it.

Is Tomkins a shoe in and if so why? Is he playing better than say Gale at the moment because I honestly don't think ST offers the England set up that great a deal, certainly not more than Gale in the halves tbh and Hardaker would be massively dissapointed not getting the FB spot.
We've got a good blend right now and whilst individual brilliance can win games Gale is showing that he has a pretty decent set of indidual skills too as well as some attributes that are better than ST.

Tomkins is a problem imo. He's not as good a defender or as good under the high ball as Hardaker and he's not a specialist half back like Gale. He's pretty much just an exceptional open field runner and a penalty milker (which is good when it's your team as you get loads of penalties).

Gale and Williams have been excellent this season and Widdop is obviously a good player. All three are specialist half backs.

I think you'd lose that position specific specialism if Tomkins takes the place of any of those players at FB or HB.

If we're picking on form then Sam Tomkins won't get in the squad and rightly so.

Hardaker has eclipsed Tomkins this year and should be at Full Back for England, anything else would be criminally incompetent from McNamara.

Brough apart, Gale has been the best Scrum Half in SL this year and that's coming from a Wakefield supporter who has no love for Castleford. That should mean a Gale/Widdop partnership which looks decent to me.

And he can kick with both feet, an often under-remarked skill few others have.

I agree with the last couple of posts. ST is a great broken-field runner, but not a better full-back than Hardaker, and asking him to play in the halves for the first time (properly) since he was a kid against the Kiwis would be a massive ask.

Maybe the best compromise would be Hardaker at full-back, Widdop and Gale in the halves, and ST as bench hooker, offering a second-half option.

And as noted above, George Williams is not far away from an England shirt.

and there's is the problem, why do we need to shoehorn certain players in?

if Hardaker is deemed better than Tomkins at FB then Tomkins should be left out, not try and find somewhere for Tomkins to play, to the detriment of the team and another player who is worthy of a call up.

Asking Tomkins to play half-back is too much but asking to be a bench hooker, a position he has never played is a good compromise? What...?

The difference between 6 and 1 these days is negligible. The only difference really is without the ball.

Widdop is a highly rated, first choice standoff playing in the best league in the world, so he should be a shoe in given we don't have anyone else currently demonstrating that kind of calibre. However, I'm a traditionalist, I think we should do as we've done in the past and pick a loose forward to play at standoff, the Kiwis won't be expecting that!

If RTS and Inglis were both Aussies, would you just leave one of them out? The answer is no and you are very naive.

He's played at dummy-half for the Warriors.

If the difference between 6 and 1 is negligible, just ask Rocky Hampshire...

yes, if there were players better than them in that position that deserved to be in the team

i didn't realise the England team HAS to include Sam Tomkins?