I'd bring Sarginson in for Shenton, as he's more dangerous with the ball and makes a lot more yards helping the forwards out.

Whitehead for Ferres on the bench. Whitehead would add abit more punch. But I wouldn't want to start him due to the amount of missed tackles he makes.


Push Clarke to 9, O'Loughlin to start at 13 and then have Westerman on the bench for Utility value and O'Loughlin can give Clarke 10 mins breather at some point.

S Tomkins
Hall
Sarginson
Watkins
Charnley
Widdop
Smith
G Burgess
Clarke
Graham
Farrell
Tomkins
O'Loughlin

Hill
T Burgess
Whitehead
Westerman

*Forgot Smith!

Hardaker on the wing seems obvious to me. Hall and Hardaker are both very good under the bomb and can take some of the pressure off Tomkins and if necessary move to FB for the kick.

Gives us huge flexibility and pretty much covers the entire back line and I'm not sure we lose all that much compared to any of the specialist wingers we have. The Aussies and kiwis would be playing him without a shadow of a doubt if the were us.

If Hardaker ever did add a creative passing game he would be a match for any fullback in the world. He is a great broken field runner and in my opinion the best defensive FB in Rugby right now.

Tomkins at fullback is too good to shift
Hardacre looks good in broken running but lacks creativity

If you must play Hardacre out him on the wing but I'd say leave him off

As usual the issue is not who to pick from the squad but the squad picked
There's half a dozen better back rows in England than in the squad than Farrell and J Tomkins

Hardaker on the wing isn’t a bad shout. He could swap with Tomkins for the kicks like the Warriors wingers sometimes do.

I'd be interested to know whom those half a dozen are.

Got me stumped.

I think it's a difficult enough task as it is, without going in a man short

Most posters seem to be worried about our players' defensive ability, "Tomkins is shaky under the bomb", "Whitehead misses too many tackles" etc etc ........... however if we select a team based on ability to defend, we'll hand the iniatiative to the Convicts, our only chance against a relatively weak team, is to be bold, select players with flair, and attack them.

Don't get me wrong, I believe the ability to defend, tackle, diffuse the bomb etc is important; but if we take the conservative route, eventually after 60 minutes or so, the dam will break and the Convicts will score a load of late points.

Scores a try and was in a position to help create a try for Joel Tomkins yet Shenton appears favourite for most to be dropped from the backline.

Yes lets go back to the square peg/round hole philosophy of moving players from their club positions.

Hardaker onto the wing doesn't solve any problems IMO. If he comes in and switches with Tomkins for kicks Aus and NZ would just target Tomkins on the wing which would be arguably harder for him when wingers are attacking the kicks. I also think Hardaker would struggle a little on the wing physically trying to help the forwards like Charnley did Vs Samoa. An option could be to bring Burgess in alongside Sarginson on the left creating a partnership and then push Hall to the right with Watkins.

Starting swaping wing/fullback positions mid game seems to complicated to me to bother with. Either Tomkins is backed at fullback to do the job he's supposed to do or Hardaker is brought in to that position.

As well as I thought Smith did Saturday and as unlucky as he'd be I'm starting to edge towards moving Tomkins to halfback and bringing in Hardaker. We need to be squeaky clean on Sunday and as error free as possible and we can't afford to be letting balls bounce in our twenty because the Aussies chase will be very committed.

I think back to Cardiff last year and how easily Inglis mugged Tomkins for that high ball to score and it sort of makes up my mind.

And finally, common sense. Well done that man. Completely agree

Ferres has more skill and ability in his bootlaces than Westermans whole career

Drop Westerman for SoL
Put Ferres on from the start

That's it

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Shenton
Hall
Widdop
Smith
Graham
Houghton
G Burgess
Farrell
Ferres
O'Loughlin

J Tomkins
Whitehead
Hill
T Burgess

I presume that his NRL team have found a way to protect S Tomkins from the high ball, can't we just adopt their method? Perhaps his own players running towards him and inadvertently making it difficult for the opposition?

What is it with everyone suddennly deciding on new positions for everyone? Especially Tomkins, obviously, but now Hardaker's suddenly a winger.

Give it a rest. You may think Tomkins has a better long term position than FB ( I, in common with coaches who know far more than any of us, disagree ) but the middle of an International tournament isn't the time to experiment with new positions. Every player has strengths and weaknesses. When you pick one over another, there's bound to be some skill that the rejected player executes better, but the coach makes that call. If you're unlucky enough to have a lot of competition for the place you play in, it's bad luck, but hey. The solution is never to start making room for people by playing them or others in the wrong position. Don't get me started on Sinfield.