Feel free to name the players that are better than them in their positions.

looking at that, there is only 3 recognised front rowers, Graham, Hill and T.Burgess, but yet what i'd consider 7 back rowers, although i appreciate that Cooper could be both.

i've always said that the England squad is more about who you play for than how good you are, it's taken McGillvary years to get the recognition he deserves, despite playing pretty consistently, yet Burgess played something like 20 games for Wigan before he was called up.

not too many surprises though apart from maybe Ferres and Westwood and Smith, but pleased that Gale is in.
squad does seem a little bit too imbalanced for me though.

Joe Greenwood, Jordan Turner, Dougie Charnock, Jon Wilkin and Mark Flanagan.

To be fair Wigan finished on the same amount of point as Leeds. Not like they were average all year.

Bateman has been excellent all year and was great yesterday too. Deserves to be in.
George Williams is a great shout. He will be England's 6 at the next WC. Expose him to international level and see what he can do.

Smith and Westwood are baffling selections. Would have liked to have seen Ablett in there. Not seen Hodgson play, but having seen Mcnamra prefer Brett Ferres at hooker last year, I'm not filled with confidence in him.

Always debate about who should be in and who shouldn't. But some exciting young players in there.

One worry is there only being 2 centres and I can see McNamara putting Hardaker in centre and Tomkins at full back which will be a travesty!

...Cuthbertson?

The problem is it can't be done, because the make up of the 24 is completely wrong. 5 halfbacks and 7 backrowers means they're perfectly reasoned in their inclusion ... But being 5th choice is totally unnecessary in the squad. Going with Widdop, Gale and Smith as the halfbacks is perfectly reasoned - and the result that Watts adds depth to the props means that Williams loses out.

2 centres....yes, Watkins and Cudjoe, although There's Bateman, Ferres, who can cover. Maybe Leeds pairing on one side and Huddersfield on the other if he's actually gonna paly people in their positions.

...Cuthbertson?

nope, Cuthbertson isn't in.

Do we want to build a squad for the future or do we want to just win a test series vs NZ? If it's the latter, Danny McGuire should be in there on form, well ahead of Matt Smith.

Agree with that, only Smith can be put in the lucky to be selected bracket but it seems Mcnamara is to keep faith in him and continue with him at 7.

very surprising Cuthbertson isn't included.He brings far more to the table than Ferres who hasn't been great this year.

Hopefully Whitehead actually gets to play this time, rather than just making up the numbers like he did last year.

The issue is squad balance. There are too many backrowers and not enough props. We don't need Farrell and Bateman because there are already 4 better backrowers in the squad. What we need is more props, and greater cover in the halves and centres.

As for O'Loughlin, his day is well past. Hard to see what he offers except for a couple of penalties for head-high tackles. Maguire should certainly be in there on form, and he can be an old head to steer a team around the pitch as well as anybody.

If McNamara plays Matty Smith at 7 ahead of Luke Gale then it really is all about club colours.