True, but i'd know who i'd rather have playing at 6/7. Even Deacon, as mentioned before would have been a good shout. I just don't understand why SM didn't pick more players on form. But then again, look at what he did for Bradford. The sooner they give Shaun Wane the job, the better...

Id say almost all the players picked, were picked on form and availablilty.

My God! worst decision ever. All lockers can do is tackle (and he does that by taking the oppositions head off), and back up. There is a tiny glint of hope when crabtree is on the pitch that he may get on the end of an offload but as far as creating something out of nothing goes, Jammer would be a better bet at stand off.

Please quit crapbanana, Terry Mattersons severed finger could do a better job than you.

We have used Burrow, McGuire, Eastmond and Pryce in the past who are all running halves and it has not done much to improve us in the international arena. We do need to choose players on form but they also need to be able to do a job. Sam T will develop into a world class fullback, but because the England selectors did not choose an organising 7 he was forced into a role which does not suit him. Fien does a brilliant organising role for NZ that sorts out the frwards and gives Benji the room he needs. Hes not what i call flashy. Deacon and DB were in form and would have done that job for us. A major error in selection not to take Deacs or convince Broughy to go down under.

o'loughlin in that position would of been better sticking with brown there.

hope it works...

glad widdop dropped just didnt look upto standard for me.

With lots of Bradford Players, we'd be unstopable. We already have one dingbat from Bradford there, let's take 17.

Quote: who needs flankers? "My God! worst decision ever. All lockers can do is tackle (and he does that by taking the oppositions head off), and back up. There is a tiny glint of hope when crabtree is on the pitch that he may get on the end of an offload but as far as creating something out of nothing goes, Jammer would be a better bet at stand off. Please quit crapbanana, Terry Mattersons severed finger could do a better job than you. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2010 Lockers can do a lot more than tackle. 16 try assists in 24 games from loose compared to 20 in 26 apps for Brown.

Quote: who needs flankers? "My God! worst decision ever. All lockers can do is tackle (and he does that by taking the oppositions head off), and back up. There is a tiny glint of hope when crabtree is on the pitch that he may get on the end of an offload but as far as creating something out of nothing goes, Jammer would be a better bet at stand off. Please quit crapbanana, Terry Mattersons severed finger could do a better job than you. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2010 Lockers can do a lot more than tackle. 16 try assists in 24 games from loose compared to 20 in 26 apps for Brown.

Sams kicking isnt that great and neither is browns, between them did they turn the fullback around last week? Appart from when little kb shoved feastwood into the 37th row, I cant think of one, but I have been wrong before.

We have had a terrible kicking game at this level, for as long as I can remember.

Cant see lockers letting us down, but then again cant see him winning the game for us either, nice little excuse for Mcclueless!

Quote: Matt01 "Basically those stats show Lockers is better defensively and Brown is better offensively.'" But Brown isn't that much better offensively to account for him being a SO and lockers a loose. Those stats weren't meant to say Lockers is a better stand off than Brown btw, just to counter the comment that all lockers can do is tackle. Should probably have compared him to a non-creative loose forward. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2010 Lockers vs Ben Harrison.

Quote: Matt01 "Basically those stats show Lockers is better defensively and Brown is better offensively.'" But Brown isn't that much better offensively to account for him being a SO and lockers a loose. Those stats weren't meant to say Lockers is a better stand off than Brown btw, just to counter the comment that all lockers can do is tackle. Should probably have compared him to a non-creative loose forward. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... eason=2010 Lockers vs Ben Harrison.

Brilliant post. Our ability to create 3 game stars in this countryis incredible.

I have had a running battle with Cas fans for years regarding Westerman who is yet another creation of media/fan hype. It's not that he isn't a decent enough prospect it's just that for now a prospect is all he is and probably ever will be.

Yet despite that the idiot pairing from SKY were selecting him AFTER 3 SL GAMES!!! as a possible Tri Nations player at the end of that season. If that wasn't enough Eddie a man of incredible stupidity then suggested he may well be captain material.

To be fair you can't blame him, in his head he thinks he's made it, and why shouldn't he think that, that's what everyone tells him.

FFS how sad is that. Can you imagine an Aussie youngster receiving such hype with so little evidence - NO.

Until playing for England becomes something that is hard won rather than a whim then we will remain second rate. I accept some players are special and mature very quickly but they are rare.

For me you want a player at his peak. An average player at the peak of his game will give you more than any promising youngster or fading star. Sadly we don't seem to produce that many of these and those we do seem to get ignored.

Its not what id of gone for but not a bad team selection, 4 forwards on the bench and 1 in the backs. Mcnamaras clearly trying to out muscle them which is probably our best chance seen as we dont have the skills to match them.

Kicking could be a problem, Is Ryan Hall injured?

It all boils down to how small fry League is over here. All but a few irrelevant towns in the North of England, plus tiny pockets in London don't play the game. Even in the areas where league is established, it is firmly behind football.

I would love to see actual, genuine participation numbers. I bet England are sub 10,000 in terms of players genuinely playing the game on an ongoing basis. (Not including the 6 or 7 figure numbers the RFL would roll out based on them playing once in school).

The genuine sports stars in this country never even consider league. They would perhaps in Australia. Players like Greg Inglis and Billy Slater do exist in this country, they just try to play football until they are 18 and then turn to a non sporting life. I can see it happening at my son's school. There are two kids in his year who are utterly superb athletes. Monster kids that at 8 years of age are in size 6 adult shoes. They are all cleaning up at football at the moment, the star players on their weekend and school teams. They're not particularly talented, but being so big, strong and quick they dominate the dweeby kids they are with. They wouldn't even consider rugby league and are already being pushed towards trials with the big football teams.

Until we sort things like that out, we can never expect to fill SL academies with anything other than the sparrow legged runts we see now. I imagine the average intake for a SL academy being an Ian Hardman figure, painfully thin and very weak physically. Playing league either because of a direct family link or because they aren't good at football. Compare with the NRL where their reserve grade players are largely big strapping lads. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that when you whittle it down to the few that make it, we are going to fall short when the input into the system is so poor.