No. The England national side often gains a sheen of impressiveness following a Super League season. Those players look almost super human for their SL sides and when put together as a list of names appear wonderful.

BUT then they are exposed to the Australians in a meaningful match and swept aside with consumate ease. Those named are then consigned to the bin, no longer to be thought of as competitive with Australia.

You do realise that the Australians are neither the current World or Four Nations champions? They hold exactly the same number of international trophies as England and should be treated as such

I do hope the players don’t have the same inferiority complex that you seem to have

Love the doom merchants on here. I think some of them enjoy slating the England side. Only reason i posted was because i thinkwe are heading in the right direction. We went through 5 years with the same players every tournament.

Also saying the differnce between the NRL & SL, is the same as SL & championship is just childish. The NRL IS better, but it does have some poor players, some poor teams etc. Yes it has some stars in Marshall, Slater etc. But they're not all like that. Gareth Ellis was a very good player, went other to the league of the gods and is smashing them around.

If there was such a gulf in class, then why did we make the 4N finals on 09, and why don't we get 100 points put past us everytime.

Yes we have a lot of catching up to do, but i think we have some talented players coming through.

A successful national side will give RL much needed publcity money etc so get behind them.

You love the doom merchants? Really? I swear a lot of folk commenting on here spend more time looking at the bottom of a pint glass than action on the pitch.

See, folk mock you for "forgetting" the Exiles match, but folk always seem to forget or refuse to acknowledge the last 4N's final at Elland Rd where we competed for 60 minutes and could have taken the match. The reason why Oz ran away with it in the last twenty wasn't because of the massive gulf in standards between the two teams, it was because Shenton got KO'd and there was a long lull while everyone waited for the medics to see to him and take him off. Up to that point England had been battering Australia's line and looked certain to score. The long pause and having one of their own players be victim in an horrific accident meant all the wind was knocked out of the sails, momentum went Australia's way, they took charge and England struggled to regain composure.

This time round we have a much better and broader squad to pick from. Add to that a return to Wembley and an understrength Australian team and I think we can take this series. This year we have the one thing we've been longing for; competition for places. It wasn't that long ago, last year I think, when most folk on here were complaining about how England doesn't have any centres. How many centres do we have now that can do a job against Oz and NZ?

Tom Briscoe was the only England player to come out of last year's Four Nations tour with any credit IMO

From what I've seen of Huddersfield Danny Brough is nowhere near the form he showed before he got injured mid-season. We should go with the players in form, which in the halves are Widdop and Lomax, although McBanana will probably play Sinfield at 6. Again

They are purely for pmarrow's benefit.

HTH.

And your excuse for the shambles in last years 4 nations is what exactly? home sickness.

Funny how you talk about 09 but ignore 2010. Oh and what about the 09 game where Australia won 26 - 16 in which for the first 40 mins England looked totally 2nd rate as Australia went 26-0 up. Got an excuse for that one as well?

Funny how you can blame an injury for england losing 46-16 in the final. yes england led 16-14 but leading with 20 mins to go means nothing. The truth is australia were too good for england twice in 09!!

In the last 2 years the results between australia v england dont suggest england are any closer at all. In 2009 they were hammered. In 2010 they were hammered.

If your a grown up then I don't have a hole in my booty.

First point the original comment came from a NON HULL FC fan, so doesn't really justify your comment of "your fans have an over inflated opinion of your players." We are proud to have Tom, which SL club wouldn't at 21 he is already one of the top winger's in the competition. I would agree he is not world class but the potential is there for him to reach that level. However to come out with a stupid comment like he is the most overrated player in the competition is really a stupid comment to make and probably one by a) a person who has not seen him play every week and b) a person who has some sort of anti Hull crusade going on.

He is not world class yet but he is a fantastic prospect and unless you can point me in the direction of a better young or old English winger then I don't see what your whole point is to begin with.

Lets be honest it was a comment you made trying to get some sort of reaction out of people (hence why you gave a way over the top description of him as a player). You've probably achieved that, well done. I wonder if you'll be able to reply to this without using chlidish cocky comments on the end of your post like HTH , some stupid smiley or debating with people like your some gods gift of knowledge on RL.

I don't mind if people have a different opinion to me, I do mind when people try to patronize me though. Which effectively is what you do to most people when you post.

I haven't seen anyone benefit from your posts.

HTH.

Jack Reed can play both left and right centre - he's played right side when Hodges has been injured, and moved left when Hodges is fit. That's a bonus for us if we can find another centre to do a solid job. Widdop has shown a good short-kicking game this year and has a real boot on him when he does occasionally get to kick on the last (he generally doesn't for the Storm).

I don't think we have enough quality across the field, or strength in depth to seriously challenge Australia.

What I do like is that we have a number of backs coming through who look as though they can at least compete physically with Australia - i.e. they are reasonably big and quick (or at least quick). Some of the options we've had in the recent past have been laughable - how many undersized and yet slow backs (or just slow backs) have England had to pick as they were the best available? Lee Smith in the centres is a classic case. Royce Simmons was right when he said we simply haven't had the pace to compete.

The other problems we have had is a complete lack of structure in attack (our sets of 6 often look completely unplanned, especially in the opposition half), and an almost total inability to defend against Australia in particular when they move the ball around (be honest, how safe does England's defence look as soon as the ball gets some air?). These - IMO - are a direct consequence of shoddy standards across SL. Hopefully, more NRL-based players will help with both of these areas.

TBH I have almost given up expecting England to beat Australia when it counts. What I do expect and hope for is for us to give them a good game, and not count 'competing' for 60 minutes and yet losing by 30+ points to be seen as in any way acceptable. That Tri Nations final someone mentioned is exactly what you'd expect to see if a basically outclassed team tries hard - they keep it close but fail to convert pressure into points, then the wheels fall off when the better team scores a couple of tries. Not good enough.

Watching england v the exiles was painful at times. No structure to the attacks at all. Seemed like more hoping something will happen rather than making something happen. I honestly wouldnt be surprised if this year Mcnamara just has them playing 1 out football.

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That's a curious recollection of the game. Although it's funny how time can change the memory of what really happened.

If you go find a replay of the game, you'll see that Australia had actually scored two tries down Shenton's side of the field within about 7 mins of eachother, before Shenton was knocked out. That simply continued after he left the field.

What people who recall the game like you do also seem to forget is that Australia lost their centre, Justin Hodges, long before England lost their centre. The difference was Hodges' replacement was seamless with Kurt Gidley slotting in off the bench.

Watch a replay and tell me I'm still wrong.

Im not going to tell you that you are wrong, because its your opinion, but I would be interested to hear what those two have that would trouble the Aussies that Briscoe doesnt. IMO Briscoe is better in almost every department.

Also with regards to your long term solution, you do realise that BJB is older than Briscoe dont you?

BJB plays for Leeds. Therefore he is the long term solution.