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northernsportsreport.wordpress.c ... announced/ If you've got a minute! Thanks

He's a decent Super League centre but, looking at it from an international perspective, is very ordinary.

PS - if Warrington really were "by far the best team" last season, shouldn't they have won something meaningful (and not the league-leader's hubcap consolation prize)

PPS - the only winger available to England with any sort of specialness about him is Charnley. This 4N probably too soon for him, but if he continues the sort of progress he's made this year, he'll be a shoe-in for England in the future.

no its not over yet...




how many games has he played at

I don't know.

Tell you what, I'll rephrase my original statement and say "whilst Widdop may or may not be as good a centre as he is stand off, he has played a portion (exact amount not known) of his rugby at centre and, when I've seen him play there, has looked more than competent (although comments on his ability in that position are merely a personal judgement on my part)"


This approach sure makes for snappy prose....

Some puzzling, some ridiculous and some downright laughable selections and omissions in/from the squad!

Thank goodness the England selectors can see that Tom Briscoe is a better winger than Charnley in every single aspect of the wingers game. And before we start talking about potential, let’s not forget that Briscoe is only 21 compared to Charnley at 20

I think Charnley's far more dangerous with ball in hand than any other English winger in the game today.

Fair enough – it’s all down to opinions

I personally think that Briscoe is far more dangerous and if he played out this season for the likes of Wigan or Warrington he would have run amok in Super League (no offence FC fans)

In open space maybe. Briscoe makes his own space, breaks through tackles then has the agility and pace to finish off his own work

So does Charnley. In fact he's very difficult to put down. I rate Charnley massively and would like him to move back to centre (as he did for KR), but I'm a Wigan fan and have seen a lot more of him than Briscoe. But what I've seen of Briscoe has been very impressive.

FFS, they're both superb wingers. Both have pace, strength and the ability to sniff and finish chances and I'd love to see them both turning out for England.

Yet in typical RLFans style, this suddenly becomes Charnley vs Briscoe.

I’m very glad we have quality young wingers competing for spots in the national side

My opinion is that Briscoe is the stand out player and again (with no disrespect to FC), if he was in the Wigan, Wire or Leeds team he would be even more of a super star than he is becoming already. For FC, he does have to make his own chances a lot of the time

The most disappointing thing for me about this squad, is once again the lack of "unfashionable" selections. Essentially, the player selected come from only half of the teams in superleague. The lowest place team being Castleford in 9th.

Compare that to the Australian Squad which has been selected from 11 of their 16 teams, the lowest of which being Canberra who finished 15th!

We've got to stop looking at the same names, and the same teams, and actually start selecting players based on form, whether playing for an unfashionable club or not. It's time to start blooding some youngsters and stopping the tried, tested and failed players being selected year after year after year.

On paper, I think the knights are actually a better squad, and would give the seniors a damn good run for their money.

hang on mate the ozzies arent exactly picking from wakefield,salford are they?same old nutmeg if a good player plays for a $hit team hes not exactly gonna have the platform to prove his international worthiness is he?