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On the back of McNamara's comments about NRL based England players, what are peoples thoughts as to what the England team should look like?
To me a lot of positions are easy to fill at this point, with only one or two contenders for most positions:
Full Back - Tomkins - Short of him moving to the halves like some people have suggested Id say barring injury he is our best bet for it.
Wings - Hall and Charnley - Again, these seem pretty nailed on, both performing well, both looking for work on the pitch, Tom Briscoe (who was in the frame for some people) hasnt really been on form for me this season. If an injury occurs, maybe Lineham would be worth a look at, big and fast, albeit inexperienced.
Centres - Reed and Watkins - For me this is so simple, Watkins is great with the ball, and nippy, Reed is all about reliability and taking high ball, I just dont see anyone else contending for these spots bar injury.
Props - Sam and George Burgess, Graham and Mossop - First off, before people say it, I know that Sam has been playing Loose and Second Row and playing more minutes than a typical prop. But in internationals I dont see why he couldnt be expected to do hard spells. His running is nearly as devastating as his brother, and it wont hurt him to have breaks to refresh before coming back on to cause more problems for the opposition. George has pretty much forced his way in, he is absolutely devastating right now. Graham is playing great and has good distribution to boot to throw defenders confidence in what is going to happen. Mossop is being reliable as ever for Wigan, and I would expect him to up his game , like the others, for the big internationals.
Second Row - Westwood, Ellis and Hock - Westwood brings great workrate and aggression, Ellis knows the opposition and has a good mind for gaps and offloads, Hock is hard to stop, and if he has his had screwed can show just the right aggression. These are quite simple for me although I would hope Ellis picks up some steam towards the end of the season.
Loose Forward - Sean O'Loughlin - Tackling machine, great aggression and will play his heart out.
Hooker - Roby if fit, although I would hope he would save his dummy running for later on in games, rather than just doing it too early and not making any yards, if not fit in time, Micky Mac or Houghton for me, both great workers.
Half Backs - This is where the problem is, Sinfield is one of them, that much is clear whether we like it or not. For me the other is Widdop is fit. He simply has to be there if available, it makes sense. If he isnt fit in time, then its a problem. Chase isnt a fit for me (and more than that is not English and doesnt have pride in the shirt to me). This leaves Myler who seems to be on fire one moment, anonymous the next, or an outsider as to present himself yet like if Matty Smith came good at the end of the season or something like that. Without Widdop our halfbacks are pretty weak to me though either way.
What do people think, and do people think it is necessary for our national side coach to basically have a crack at bigging up the SL by saying players playing in the NRL will have to do something great to beat the SL based players?
I mean, what has Premiership winning, high flying (before injury), highly paid Widdop have to further do to prove himself to McNamara? What about the Burgess brothers? They need more metres and line breaks against the best defences in the world or something? Or is it just a PR exercise and really, McNamara cant wait to get his hands on the NRL based players?
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