By all accounts JJB was playing on one leg in the Wigan game so I think that decision was made for him.

I'd have had one or two others in but generally that's a good squad he's named and it's taken some guts to leave out guys like Morley, Wilkin and Crabtree.

Matty Smith and Stefan Ratchford are very unlucky IMO but McNamara wants continuity in the squad so fair enough.

Hock should be nowhere near the squad on this season's form (Ferres, Kirmond).

Choosing 3 specialist wingers when you also have Hardaker as cover is a waste of a pick and a really dumb use of a 23-man squad. Ratchford for Briscoe.

Mossop, Farrell, and Ablett makes for a very lightweight forwards squad IMO, bit worried if one of the first choice get injured. Out of the 12 England eligible SL dream team players, McNamara has picked 4, which is interesting. Crabtree and Lunt especially (biased I know) must and should feel very aggrieved.

His squad is fair enough given the quality of players at his disposal.
McNamara's team selection is the big worry.
Also that 3/4 line is a defensive nightmare. Cudjoe and Watkins are good with the ball in hand but their defensive reads are just dreadful.
Chase and Sinfield as starting halves with Widdop either on the bench or omitted is more than likely.

firstly peacock should of come out of retirement and secondly tom burgess hasn't shown any more than crabtree has done for a couple of years.

This is the most interesting call, last year McNamara opted to go with Sinfield & Chase with Widdop on the bench and the option of Sinfield to 9. If he was looking at repeating this, the selection of 3 hookers in Roby, McIlorum and Burrow seems a bit ridiculous so will be interesting to see what he is thinking with this.

On the whole agree its a good squad, would have personally included Luke Burgess and Crabtree before Hill and considered a couple of others but overall looks half decent. Glad to see Farrell in there think he has been outstanding this year whenever I have seen him, and think the exclusion of Morley is a big plus as he shouldnt have been anywhere near England level for a couple of years now.

The main worry for me is centres as I dont think either are defensively good enough to stop the likes of Inglis, Hodges, Matai etc...wonder if we will see somebody like Ablett in there for Australia game? That said, he appears to have picked more on form than his previous squads so cant knock him for that

I agree 100% with that & I would have both Lunt or Houghton ahead of Roby. also is Jack Read injured? as he is the best English centre available.

Two small gripes for me, Hock and Briscoe in the squad. Other than that pretty happy with it really. Shame Reed is injured though

I agree regards Hock not being as good as those two this year but he does offer more than them off the bench which is the role in which i think he will be used so i can see why he has got the nod.

I would have had Racthford in there, maybe instead of Burrow, as we already have 2 hookers, plus Sinfield.

I would say crabtree should be the one to feel most agrieved.T Burgess didnt get a mention for internationals while at Bulls yet after a handful of NRL games,which yes he has done well,means he is now ready.

Regarding the centres, I think we need to think about winning games rather than not losing them. Watkins and Cudjoe are both good athletes, Watkins more dangerous going forward and Cudjoe better in defence. The bottom line is that with Reed out and Atkins out of favour they are the best options we have (I would rather have two in there who are specialist centres than utility players like Hardaker, Ratchford etc)

Picking any team to defend against the likes of inglis etc is difficult if not impossible and I don’t see any English centre having him in their pocket so again we go back to having the best options in attack and good structures in defence

I'd have said the same at the beginning of the year, but from what I've seen this year he's been a liability in terms of his ball retention. Ferres can offer similar things as an offloading bench second-row but without losing it so much.

And if "bench impact" is a criteria then not sure how Tom Burgess and Mossop get in before Crabtree and Carvell. (Graham and Hill are lined up to be starting props IMO, with G.Burgess and one other on the bench).

Tom Burgess played for the Knights last year which is generally seen as the pathway to the full squad. If we say the above about Tom then the same can be said for George. Although I agree that Crabtree is very unlucky not to be in the squad