The comedy pick in the squad is Farrell, would have Ferres, Kirmond and JJB(if fit) in ahead of him.

I think the balance of the starting 17 will depend on the fitness of Sean O'Loughlin. If he his fit to play I think Sam Burgess will play mostly 2nd row, if O'Loughlin is not fit to play I expect him to play at LF

From the England RL site:

Squad will travel to training camp in South Africe on 02 Oct, with some players joining up on 07 Oct after the GF.

Huddersfield’s Brett Ferres will travel to South Africa but has not been named in the Rugby League World Cup squad.

Thought Smith might have got in. Cannot see us winning it no matter who we picked.

So what does that show? We can't defend. Anyone can pick one score and isolate it.

Usually the Aussies score out wide, not through the middle...

You obviously haven't seen much of Farrell, apart from him scoring against you last week...

Agree with you about Lockers being key though. I'd hope SM will put Sinfield at 13 if Lockers isn't fit because no matter how good Sinfield is he is never an international-standard half-back...

Ah well, at least we can aim for a 3rd place finish.....

stop making stories up, o'loughlin has been edging close to being fit for the past 2 weeks and may play this weekend.

Ratchford is very unlucky to miss out. Every time I've seen him this year he's looked dangerous. I'd certainly have picked him ahead of Burrow in the halves, or dropped the third winger option in Briscoe, as Ratchford is pretty versatile and 3 wingers is a waste of a spot.

He was talking about Tom Lineham whose fitness was queried in the post he quoted

From what I've seen there are much better English 2nd rowers knocking about in Superleague. I'd like to see Sinfield at 13 regardless of the fitness of O'Loughlin, however I can't see SM moving him from 6.

Our pack has dominated most teams this year and our stand out performer of them all is Chris Hill, if anyone doubts his selection then you've obviously not seen enough of him.

Crabtree stands out to fans, he's tall and has the silly ponytail, but I don't think his performances stand out enough.

Tom Burgess hasn't done enough for me, staying at Bradford when George went down under slowed his development compared to George, too soon for Tom and I would have had Lunt over McIllorum. Otherwise fair squad

But he's a Warrington player Yed, and any Warrington inclusions mainly have to be questioned.

Don't know why people were querying Hill's inclusion, the guy has been immense for Warrington all year.

seems a fair enough squad given the players available. I might have had Ratchford over Hardaker because he's a good back up goalkicker but that's pretty close.

For me Crabtree has played well most of the season but haven't noticed him at all in the most important games when it mattered most, which is probably why he missed out.

Probably a Chase/Widdop plus Sinfield half combination, plus Burrow off the bench as impact hooker/half cover. Would be good if O'Loughlin is fit.

The only player I would not have in the team is chase I do not rate him at all

I cannot believe that Crabtree has been left out. He has been the second best prop in the league (second to JP).

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the squad and the amount of versatility that the back up players give. It has great balance.

Although I'm not sure why we have picked 3 hookers?