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!