Nearly as good as the 1982 GREAT BRITAIN squad

Do you think that players who are not selected to represent England, should be able to be picked to play for the Exiles?

Yes if there are not English and reside in the UK

because Brough is not exiled away from his home

I agree, the Exiles concept may have had some mileage in it a few years ago when the quality of the overseas players was higher. Playing against the likes of Buderus, Trent Barrett, Jamie Lyon etc would have been exciting, but when the Exiles are the likes of Heath L'Estrange, whilst still good players, they don't have anywhere near the same draw.

I'd rather we attempt to develop the likes of France & Wales with a mid-season 5 Nations. I know England would win, and easily in many cases, but give the French a consistent challenge, year after year, then they'd undoubtably improve to the point where they could give England a game, especially in France.

Think selections should be dependant on the purpose of this game: is it a chance to get a possible team together that could play in the World Cup, or should we be using this to look at other people?

I'm not sure on the criticism re: Roby's selection? He will be our hooker at the World Cup, so he should play in this game. From a saints POV I don't want him to play, but from an England POV he should play so you cannot say that I am biased purely because he is a saints player.

The criticism should be over Burrow's selection considering he is not good enough to play hooker for England. I'd have picked Lunt and put him on the bench instead of Burrow.

At least McNamara hasn't gone with Wilkin, thank god! Although JJB has slipped through, again, somehow.

JJB's selection is purely based on being a Rhino. He is the definition of average, and on top of that he's an absolute penalty machine. He's so lazy in the ruck. If he played for anyone else he still wouldn't stand out, he'd just be another player.

I can't remember the last time someone said "Jones-Buchanan was one of the best players on the pitch today".

Not one to spoil a good rant with facts but...

JJB with 11 is behind the following players in the penalty department O'loughlin (15) , Westwood (14) Ferres (14) farrell (13)

Hes also way way down near the bottom in terms of Errors (not even in the top 50 in the league on SL site)

He's also 7th on the top tacklers list for the season with 522


So hes not really a penalty machine, doesn't make many errors, and is a very good tackling with a great engine.



But having said all that he wouldnt be in my England team to face the Exiles, just don't like nonesense spouted for the sake of it.

Is there a stat for 'poor defensive read' as I'm sure he would be a record breaker in that.

As much as I try, I can't get excited by international RL while we have McNamara as the England coach. With a decent coach in place we'd have a decent shot at this year's WC. As it stands he's going to go for a Sinfield and Chase HB pairing which we've already seen doesn't work, it starves our biggest attacking threat in Tomkins from getting any quality ball.

Absolute nonsense, Sinfield and Chase went OK last time around and we have a better squad than we did for the 4Nations in 2011 and we went pretty well in that too.

As a RL fan i get excited at any international involving GB/England and NZ/Australia, to say your not bothered because of the coach seems a bit ridiculous to me, but it seems thats how petty a lot of RL supporters are and why International RL isnt as big as it should be.

when the WC actually comes round I suspect that he will try all the combos at halfback of Sinfield, Chase and Widdop in the group matches, and see which works best.

Same for the forwards. Everyone will probably get a chance against either Ireland and Fiji and the best combinations will stand out. Lets not forget we will get injuries too, so it is nigh on impossible to work out which players will run out at Old Trafford for the final.

I am not really inspired by McNamara as coach; but we should at least give him a chance to fail at his objective before writing him off as a failure.

Brian McDermott said it in his interview after the Hull game. Statistically he was the best forward on the pitch from either team.