Though there are a few i imagine would (i'm guessing you know who) i think your being a little unfair to the majority who seem to still be saying good things about him.

Pryce
Gardner
anyone, though i would be tempted to go for Lawrence, just to see what he can do
Senior
Hall
Mcguire
Tomkins
Peacock
Sinfield
Graham
Ellis
Wild
o'loughlin

Moore
Morley
Burgess
Crabtree

the starting pack can take the sting out of any pack, and there is lots of impact on the bench,

Senior has retired from Rep duty.
Who is covering the backs from the bench?
Crabtree is not up to in in my opinion.

A LF at hooker over roby? If we are going to have tompkins in the halfs i wouldnt play mguire along side him, he's an excellent support player, but not much of an organiser, which means with no organising loose forward its all down to tompkins which alot of pressure on the lad.

Oh and seniors retired.

Apart from that not too bad a team.

both wild and ellis can cover the centres

sinfield can cover S-O, pryce the wing and centres and Mcguire FB

a player like crabtree can be devastating to a tired pack,

there is nothing to stop Mcguire doing a lot of the organising, he really isnt the player he was 5 years ago, he is much much more involved now,

much more of the good stuff leeds do comes through Mcguire these days, its burrow who has become the peripheral figure

plus, Sinfield is on there to take on some of the kicking/organising responsibility


besides that would be the starting line up, after 25 minutes i would look for Moore to come on for o'loughlin, move sinfield to loose giving us an extra creative player, to take advantage of the added impact from Crabtree Morley and Burgess

as for senior, if i was tony smith i would be begging senior for one last shot, with him we have a strike centre/wing partnership that whilst not great, will cause any team a few problems,

without him, we have nothing in the 3/4er line to scare anyone

craptree played rep footy yet

Moving Forwards to the backs may be ok for an odd game at Club level, at Test level they may get found wanting for pace and agility.

The fact you usually have to score more points than the other team to win a match is unlikely with a second rower in the Centres.

You need a utility back on the bench at Test level.

Well you see more of mguire than me, but when he's been on tv i havent seen him being much of an organiser. Still a bit mystified why roby isnt in there to be honest. As for senior he was terrible at the world cup, i dont see what would be differant this time. If you dont rate atkins or shenton fair enough, but if senior can have a terrible world cup and still get in the team it sends out the wrong message to our youngsters, that no matter how bad you perform at international level you can still get picked on reputation. I personally think shenton would do a good job at international level (i'm also curious how a number of posters have discussed senior having shenton in his pocket, as that would be rather impressive from the other side of the field).

Wellens
Fox
Shenton
Atkins
Hall
McGuire
Myler
Morley
Moore
Graham
Ellis
Westwood
Sinfield

Roby, JJB, Peacock, Burgess

i dont think we have a utility back that would be much better than Ellis or wild in the centres,

i dont think we have a winger who can play FB who wouldnt be embarrassed at test level (bar Lee Smith who will be gone unfortunately)

Are you Tony Smith because the team you have picked is virtually the team that went to the WC and did sod all.

im not sure what roby would offer, the speed around the ruck has been completely removed from our game, maybe it will be reffed differently at international level, if it is, i would have him in there



i dont think he had a terrible world cup, i think he had a poor one, but was still probably the best back we had,

he is also, and has also been much much better than either shenton or atkins, and atkins has been absolutley embarrassed by senior everytime i have seen them go up against each other

i would hope the message that it would send out to our youngsters is you are continually being shown up by an old man who is a country mile better than you, and he in turn has shown he is a little too old for international level, yet we need to stick with him because he is so much better than you are, so buck up your ideas because your not even close to getting in the squad, never mind having that squad win anything

If you dont think that senior had a terrible world cup thats upto you, i thought he was one of the worst players out there, offering nothing in attack and making some terrible errors in defence.

In your opinion he has been much better than shenton and atkins but you havent seen all the players as much as each other, i havent seen as much of senior and atkins as some but i can tell you he's (shenton) been in pretty good form, especially considering how little ball he got while sherwin was injured. If you look at the stats in most areas shenton and senior are pretty closely matched whilsts in a few areas they are much better than one another ie senior has more try assists but shenton has more tries, senior misses less tackles but makes more errors and concedes more penalties.

It all about opinions so we will have to agree to disagree.