George played reserve grade before getting a chance in the NRL. Tom has a little bit of Super League experience add that to now been surrounded by better players at Souths I think in the next year we will make big steps.

I do agree that he possibly shouldn't be in the England squad this year. but its good experience for him. apart from some handling errors he hasn't really let anyone down yet IMO

would agree with this.Maybe Burrow for McIlorum and start with Roby.


The best thing that can hapeen to England is for one of Widdop, Sifield or Chase to do a hamstring.

WE need the two halves who are going to play to play all the time and stick with it.

Banana does not know what his best half back combination is and i think it is affecting team plays and players performance. Whether you like Chase or not he is not playing his natural game. Without his natural game he is a passenger

If he is the first choice then Widdop should be dropped and rangi should be then given that boost of confidence and tols to go out and play.

If widdop is the first choice drop rangi and let him get on with sinfield.

If sinfield is going to be hooker then play him there and let the twp halves play.


No other serious team in the competition has gone into it thinking which one of these three do i play, " I know i will ;pick all three and just mess them arond"

What a load of shiite

Next year is too late for TOM. The WC is now. The next WC is 4 years ago. This is not about blooding players to give them international experience you should have your best players in the squad NOW.

He has let people down. His team mates and the fans. Dropping the ball helps no one. If we did not drop the ball and give penalties away against Australia they were beatable in the first game. The boost that woul dhave given the fans, the team and the whole competition would have been huge.

The worse of it is that we have a team now where we do not have 4 first pick props. Mossop and Tom are passengers. So we are forced to play someone who is not up to it or have to move second rowers around

Between the prop situation and the halve backs not been resolved England are right royally fooked.

IF we had won the WC this year the game would have taken off. SL etc would have had a sponsor next year, crowds up, piblicity up, sponsorship up. The game could probably have put it's financial problems behind it.

did tom burgess even play yesterday?! next weeks props should be graham, hill, s.burgess and g.burgess.

widdop and ablett offering little of the bench last two games, needs changing.

though chase got involved alot more yesterday and looked good, cudjoe again showed his class shutting the knockers up. Ferres fitted perfect, will keep his place on last two showings.

apart from that a good result! can beat fiji but will be a tougher test than the irish put up.

I'm not sure why you would drop Chase after his performance yesterday. He was one of our best players, along with Roby, who you've dropped to the bench for some reason.

Can’t agree that we are fooked in the front row

If we go into the big games with a front row rotation of Sam Burgess, George Burgess, James Graham and Chris Hill we will be very strong

McNamara has dropped a bit of a clanger by selecting Tom Burgess over Crabtree or even someone like Luke Burges or Alex Walmsley. If George is injured next week then Sam comes back in as a direct replacement.

lets now drop this big burgess sentiment thing that's going on,as tom sadly is nowhere good enough at the minute for a spot in england's 17 man squad

Matchday 17 Forwards
Props - Hill, S.Burgess, G.Burgess, Graham
2nd rows - Ferres, Westwood
Loose - O'Loughlin
Sub back rower - Ablett or Farrell

Sub back row may be an issue and it would've been interesting to see Farrell get a game yesterday but when I saw the strapping on Watkins knee then maybe that's what's swaying the pick to Ablett.

T.Burgess should be no-where near the squad never mind the 17, he's gash, completely innocuous and offers nothing.
Picking him over the likes of Crabtree is completely and utterly mental, it must stick in the craw for him (crabtree) to watch the crap thrown up by this 2nd rater..

Picking Sam Burgess in the front row when both his running and defence are far more important wider out is dumb. Part of the reason he was knackered against Aus was he was doing a massive amount of work out wide shoring up the right side defence.

McNamara needs to get rid of the halfback on the bench - although if Roby could do 80 mins it would be very useful to have a utility back available.

I'd rest Hall and Roby for the Fiji game, start McIlorum with Burrow off the bench and give Charnley and Briscoe a chance to stake a claim for the no. 2 shirt for the QFs and beyond. I'd also give Widdop 80 minutes at 6.

I'd go something like:

Tomkins
Charnley
Cudjoe
Watkins
Briscoe
Widdop
Sinfield
Hill
McIlorum
Graham
S Burgess
Ferres
O'Loughlin

Burrow
G Burgess
Mossop
Farrell

Presuming Hardaker doesn't feature, that would mean 23 of the 24 man squad have played at least one group game.

agree, still cant believe crabtree didnt get selected..even more so after watching tom burgess playing for England.

It's not really resting, more looking at other options.

It's basically a choice of Briscoe or Charnley for one wing spot.
The Sinfield/Chase with Widdop on the bench system doesn't work for me. I think Widdop should be given a start to see if the attacking structure looks better. This frees up a bench spot, so it's worth looking at McIlorum and Burrow to spell Roby. Players like Ablett and Westwood haven't offerred much for me, so I'd look at using Sam Burgess in the backrow and give Liam Farrell some game time.

How is it 5hit or bust exactly? Fiji will be a physical side but any 17 we put out should have enough to beat them. We're pretty much guaranteed qualification anyway unless Ireland pull off the shock of the century!