Obviously I don't see as much of Hall as you do and I'm not saying I don't like Hall because I would be more than happy if Hull signed him. When I say he doesn't have much about him I mean relative to other international wingers.

Anyway, in defence is he that much better? Are you basing it on their one on one tackling? Positional sense? Ability to defuse kicks? I don't think there is alot to split them tbh. Magic jinking runs? Well I've never seen one but I'll take your word for it. He does score long range tries because as I have said he is a good athelete but how often does he have to beat defenders to score these and how often is it good work by his team mates to give him a clear run? He is more likely to blast players out the way than Briscoe because he has a bigger frame but Briscoe has a better fend.

90% agree with you, but I think when fully fit Jermaine McGilvary is right up there with the top two. His kicking on the wing is immense! Charnley would be fourth choice for me.

Challenge Cup Quarter Final last year
Challenge Cup Semi Final last year

HTH

Best attacking winger this year has been Broughton. He would score more on the wing for Wigan than Charnley IMO.

France should never be put together with Great Britain. First of all it makes no sense whatsoever and secondly, where do you stop? Italy, Serbia, Lebanon?

The Four Nations should be Australia, New Zealand, France and Great Britain in the northern hemisphere. If you're going to have the tournament in the southern hemisphere (which I wouldn't) then include the top ranked SH side after the Kangaroos and Kiwis. At present that would be Papua New Guinea, leaving Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands to play in the Pacific Cup.

World Cups should see the home nations rather than GB participate. If players know they can play for GB in the Four Nations without ruling themselves out of representing their nation in the big one, I believe we are far less likely to see the embarrassing flip-flopping between countries we currently have.

A GB tour every four years, along the lines of some earlier posts, would prove popular and would again dissuade players from putting their hands up for a nation for all the wrong reasons.

25-man squad, assuming all fit and some of these have progressed as hoped:

Tomkins, Ratchford
Hall, Briscoe, Charnley
Reed, Watkins, Atkins, Hardaker
Widdop, Lomax, McGuire
Graham, Burgess, Mossop, Hill, LMS
Roby, Clark
Hock, Ellis, Westwood, O'Loughlin, Bateman, Patrick

Just the two? Surely with you been a Wigan fan, you'd be able to name more than two. If he's managed more than two of course.

Briscoe
Hall
Charnley
Broughton
McGilvary

Are the best of British, Riley scores alot, but who wouldn't on the wing for Wire. He's fast and can finish chances off but that's it. He's not amongst the best of British.

cant believe people are leaving crabtree out of their squads in both exiles game he was our best prop for me, personally i woiuld pick hall every time over briscoe and cudjoe over atkins, yet again atkins defence in internationals is poor at best.

Also, I reckon there should be a mid season test series...... with France.
If you promoted properly, like a solid one year advance, and convince its a great way to watch test match rugby and spend a weekend in france during the summer on Bastille day, I think the britsih supporters would come... And fill it out.

France V GB (Mille on Bastille Day)
GB V France (Anfield Liverpool) something different

I'm sure Cudjoe's defence isn't much better than Atkins'. Atkins makes a lot more errors but offers a lot more in attack. Goulding should be above Cudjoe in the pecking order IMO but fans of other teams don't seem to want to accept that. He's solid in defence, makes yards from his own half, doesn't make many errors and his winger is this season's top try scorer. McBanana playing Ablett at 3 over Goulding in Exiles 1, splitting the Goulding/Charnley partnership in the process, highlights exactly how much the man is out of his depth.

Although the argument is Charnley or Briscoe, not Briscoe or Hall.

Tomkins
Briscoe
Reed
Atkins/Goulding
Hall
Widdop
Brough
Burgess
Roby
Graham
Ellis
Hock
O'Loughlin

Mossop
Crabtree
Westwood
McIlorum

I would imagine would be my team.

I think roby would be better at 13 playing the full 80. Possibly starting with mcclurum at hooker with burrow off the bench

I agree, we gave up on France too soon in my opinion.

Brainstorming time of the month again is it


Something I'd love to see in my lifetime would be some sort of consistent international or representative calendar. Something like this (preferably better) would be great.

[uMid Season:[/u for 3 weeks, no club matches in this time.
State of Origin (Australia)
War of the Roses/Exiles (England)
New Zealand 'Origin' (New Zealand, Cook Islands)
European Cup (France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland)
Pacific Cup (PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga)
Atlantic Cup (USA, Jamaica, Canada, South Africa)
European Shield (Italy, Serbia, Lebanon, Russia)
European Bowl (Germany etc)

[uPost-Season[/u

[uYear One:[/u 6 Nations Northern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, England, 1st Pacific Cup, 1st European Cup, 2nd European Cup)
[uYear Two:[/u 6 Nations Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, England, 1st Pacific Cup, 1st European Cup, 2nd Pacific Cup)
[uYear Three:[/u World Cup Qualifiers, Ashes or Tours
[uYear Four:[/u World Cup

So move the best English 9 away from his best position and therefor lose our best 13 just to play Roby there. No thanks.

I know Roby used to come on at 13 occasionally so both he and Cunningham could be on the pitch at the same time but I really don't know what that would acheive now. His speciality is running from dummy half on the back of a quick play the ball, you wouldn't get that from him if he was playing at 13, plus you'd have to sacrifice a specialist loose to accomodate him! Terrible idea IMO.

Tomkins/Ratchford
Briscoe/Broughton
Yeaman/Goulding
Atkins/Watkins
Hall/Riley
Widdop/Smith
Lomax/Myler
Graham/Hill
Roby/Houghton
Carvell/Mossop
Westwood/Ellis
Sam Burgess/Tickle
O'Loughlin/Sinfield

Mossop/Taylor
Hill/Mc-Scarsbrook
Mcilorum/Burrow
Hock/Luke Burgess

Always a possibility that a young player like a Currie or Bateman, Patrick, Farrell maybe Tuson etc hopefully a half back will take the comp by storm and take a squad place and if Simon Grix is eligble and would switch from Ireland he would be worth a place in the squad

I picked the 2 most notable examples, there's been others but I just can't remember them off the top of my head.

Roby starting at 13 is a bad idea in my opinion. Moving him to 13 and bringing burrow on at 9 later in the game would work well though in my opinion. We need to change tactics against the australia so a 2 hooker system could work to our advantage.

You don't get a QPTB against the aussies. Roby to 13 with a 'clever' hooker might be a good shout in terms of tactics.

Where has this theory come from that wingers have to go the full length to be good?

A good winger imo is one that can defend his corner well when asked too and is in the position to score tries should the ball come to him. Yes some of Josh's tries have been 'put on a plate' but a lot of them have taken some scoring, be it outpacing his opposite number, grounding the ball from a kick or squeezing his way over ala Ryan Hall. They haven't been Ade Gardner-esque 'catch and put down' tries.

Agreed for me it's hall + 1 for England and that one in my opinion should be charnley

Tomkins

Charnley
Watkins
Reed
Hall

Widdop
??? Lomas

Graham
Roby
Mossop

Hock
Westwood
Burgess

I'd have Brough over LomaX, and Ellis in the back row somewhere.

So many things wrong with this post I don't know where to begin!