He might still pick Myler and Brough...

Burgess is out long term injured, probably won't make the 4 nations.

And as for people saying Kris Welham for the four nations, have you seen his defence? Greg Inglis would think all his Christmas' have come at once when he was running in his 11th try of the night.

TBF, he'll be thinking that no matter who we pair up in the centres

Granted I've only seen him play a few times, but when I have his defence has ranged somewhere between shoddy and shambolic. There's no doubt he's a natural born try scorer, but against the likes of SKD, Inglis, Hodges, Sa'u etc. at international level his defence would almost certainly negate that.

And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!

I'd expect the Exiles lineup to be something like:

Hodgson

King
Soliola
Carmont
Richards

Chase
T.Leuluai

O'Meley
Buderus
Puletua
Menzies
L.Anderson
Fitzgibbon

M.Monaghan
Manu
K.Leuluai
Cashmere
_____________________


That's hardly current international standard, especially in the threequarters, but I'd still fancy that team to win against a McNamara XVII if McLennan can motivate them on the night. Will be interested to see how Rangi Chase goes behind a strong pack.

Have you seen us defened as a team?
The players you mentioned would struggle.
Put Welham in a team with a tighter defensive structure and I would put my mortgage on his improving.

Quote: ChampagneSuperRovers "And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!'" Shenton's defence has been terrific bar a couple of bad games. He's made over twice the tackles Welham has and missed half the amount Welham has. Yes Welham is probably more of an attacking threat but I was commenting on his defence. Infact, Shenton is the only back to feature in the top 25 tacklers this season at 14th. So his defence would clearly be a much much safer option than Welham. Welham has made 83% of tackles this season which means he misses roughly 1 in 5. Shenton has made 96% of his tackles this season which is an impressive figure. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 1&hp2=4873

Quote: ChampagneSuperRovers "And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!'" Shenton's defence has been terrific bar a couple of bad games. He's made over twice the tackles Welham has and missed half the amount Welham has. Yes Welham is probably more of an attacking threat but I was commenting on his defence. Infact, Shenton is the only back to feature in the top 25 tacklers this season at 14th. So his defence would clearly be a much much safer option than Welham. Welham has made 83% of tackles this season which means he misses roughly 1 in 5. Shenton has made 96% of his tackles this season which is an impressive figure. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 1&hp2=4873

On the Welham debate – he is one of two left centres in the squad along with Atkins... while we don’t know if Welham can step up to international football, we do have the answer to whether Atkins can or not (so I’m not sure why he is in the squad at all)

Maybe the answer is to play one centre out of position and go with Shenton and Bridge... at least they have shown they can handle international football as various stages

Tomkins and Bridge I agree with you on, but Welham's a defensive liability, McGillvary has played only a handful of super league games which in my view means he's far too inexperienced to be facing the aussies and would be found out quickly, and Tom Briscoe I think is overrated but tbh we don't have many other options anyway

Obviously I don't doubt any player would improve in a structured defensive line, but I've seen him miss 1 on 1 tackles that he should be making on plenty of occasions.

Atkins and to a lesser extent Shenton were made to look daft at times last year, a game like this should give us a clue or 2 to Welhams chances, id have played him just to have a look.

Picked on form players my , we got our 6 and 7 getting rave reviews most weeks yet one doesnt get picked when the squads crying out for a 6.

Yeomans omission is a mystery, impressed me every game ive seen him this year, Jermaine prob wants a few more games under his belt, same for Foster, look at them with a full season under their belts.

No idea why Peacocks in there, class as he is, back in after what, 3/4 games all season, certainly no form to speak of, id have given a run out to the young lad at bradford instead (name escapes me).

All in all, a poor selection of a squad from McNamara, same old, same old.