Wing and centre are where the problems are

Considering England's wings in the World Cup semi final against New Zealand were Ade Gardner and Mark Calderwood, I would suggest that any combination of Fox, Briscoe and Hall would be an improvement

In fact, taking a look at the full team that day, I think England will be a stronger outfit in 2010

Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Martin Gleeson, Keith Senior, Mark Calderwood, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, James Graham, James Roby, Jamie Peacock (c), Ben Westwood, Gareth Ellis , Rob Purdham

Either one of Widdop or Tomkins will probably offer more than Wellens who is a great club player but lacks the pace for the international game

I have mentioned the wings

I would have Widdop at full back so that Tomkins and Eastmond can play in the halves (Eastmond is struggling but he has some time to recover)

The pack above is pretty strong but I would say the addition of Sam Burgess and Sean O'loughlin would strengthen it some more... Peacock is a loss of course

I admit centre is a problem, but all in all, not that bad a situation

We need Eastmond fit, as the Tomkins/Eastmond 6/7 combination is crucial to us.

Wings are pretty solid, I'd say.

Peacock will be a loss in the props, but we have enough good forwards to cover.

Our biggest issue in my eyes, other than McNamara - although I'll give him his chance - is our centres. It's our current weakest spot, and we hardly have any cover for it.

We'll beat PNg and scrape past NZ, and lose badly to Oz in the final. Deja vue??

IMO they are average at best on the international scene

Is he the coach, though, or is he just a british face for the coaching staff? What exact role is brian Smith going to play? I'd say he's going to be the real voice of authority in the coaching roles.

Oh, and I don't think we'll be seeing Eastmond if reports are to be believed.

thats exactly what will happen......and somehow all the doom mongerers will say we're still miles behind australia AND NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand have won a world cup and seem to do better against the aussies than us though. For some reason they seem to struggle against us, but NZ seem to reach more finals and do better against australia than us which could indicate they are slightly ahead of us. I have seen the NZ squad and it seems relatively healthy this year. In recent years they seem to come into the end of season internationals rather beaten up so they might be better this year. The NZ backline looks rather good also which could be a problem for our weak backline.

Well you never know. It all depends on whether Aus and NZ can be d.

if NZ where miles ahead of us they would'nt struggle against us would they....the facts are there is'nt really alot between the 2 side,both are capable of beating each other,both are capable of dishing out the occasional hiding to each other also........sure the kiwis seem to overcome the mental stumbling block when it comes to playing australia when it matters....ie RLWC08 final & tri nations 2005 final...but thats no good if they then trip up against england...they are very jekyll and hyde...and have been for the past 10 years..

should the kiwis be favourites to beat england in the opening game...course they should..but only cos their at home

I wouldn't worry about it. I saw McNamara on Boots 'n' All last week, he said they are just going over to have "fun" so the results don't really matter

The problem with that line of thinking is that the coaches who rule with an iron rod and make it all about the ‘job at hand’ also fail – Capello in the World Cup springs to mind

Tony Smith had some pretty good results as GB/England coach – a 3-0 series win over NZ and making the final of the last 4 Nations but it all fell apart when he went on tour – he wasn’t the right man for the job of keeping the team together on foreign soil over a tournament

I’m not saying that McNamara is going to succeed but I will only class him as failure if he fails and not before he has even picked his squad

A final in appearance in this 4 Nations would be a step in the right direction

It'll be interesting to see who plays 7 with Eastmond and McGuire both out.

Burrow? Long? Myler? It's not a good list.

I'd expect another 3 or 4 withdrawals as well. Ellis is rumoured to be headed for an operation on his back for one.

It's McNamara we're talking about. It'll probably be Deacon.

Why not Danny Brough at 7 with Tomkins a 6. I reckon he will go with Kevin Brown at 6 and Tomkins at 7.

Brown will get murdered out there!