I`m a firm believer that you should pick any national team on form whether thats in rugby league or football, like a lot of people ive questioned some of Richie Mathers past form which has mainly been because of his error rate but over the last month since it was announced that we were signing Brett Hodgson he`s been the stand out full back in SL in my opinion.

Its even more suprising that Mathers has been left out to include Gareth Widdop who has mainly been playing for Melbourne's academy and Under-20s team, also Mathers had a blinder right under the nose of Steve McNamara when we knocked the Bulls out of the cup.

So what form warrants Gareth Widdop`s inclusion ahead of the form full back in SL ?

Just keep on what your doing Richie, your playing some top quality RL at the min.

Agree totally Rob, and based on performance over the last month or so, I know who I would prefer to have at FB next year!

Q. Why did it take us to sign another player in order to kick Mathers in to this recent form?

After his complete Twitter spitting, he's been great but it's also quite annoying to see him like this when it's come too late.

I'd keep him the extra year, personally.

Myler & Briers have both missed chunks of this season, if that happened next year which is always likely, you could play Hodgson at six, and Mathers at 1.

In the event you had a fully fit squad, I think he's push a decent case for inclusion in the bench most weeks to given you versatily at 1-7 really.

All this, i'm saying it'd be on reduced terms (£££'s).

Can't imagine he's on a massive contract anyhoo, JWP, considering the desire he had to get away from Wigan when the deal came about. I'd have him for another year too - it's a squad game after all.

I can only imagine that Widdop was included to 'tie' him to England. Not sure why that is necessary as he is unlikely to be in contention for a green and gold jersey in the foreseeable future (if ever), and we all know that players can change their national allegiance more often than Danny Brough changes clubs! IMO Mathers, Halley, Shaun Briscoe, Cudjoe, or even Leon Pryce should all be ahead of Widdop.

How many of Widdop's games have you managed to watch to deduce he's not in form? Or how many of the other fullbacks in SL have you watched in that time?

He's played most games this season if what I've read is right. He was at fullback for them last weekend and has been playing centre and stand off for them too. You can see from that he's already massively better than calamity Mathers.

Mathers will be a joke figure at Cas this time next season.

Wow, i just had a frighteining thought of Mathers trying to tackle Greg Inglis against Australia at the end of the year, like a lamb to slaughter. He might be ok in attack but his defence is laughable and if he was included in Englands Squad McNamara would just be shooting himself in the foot. Search Gareth Widdop on youtube he is miles better than what Mathers is or ever will be already. Im glad we're giving him a chance.

did you see shaun briscoe trying to tackle ade gardner a few weeks ago.. now THAT was laughable.

mathers defence may have been poor when he played for you, but it has been decent this season for us.

Absolutely, looked a class above where he's ever been before at times on Sunday. His last man tackle on Orford as he was a few metres out from the line was superb.

I think you're judging the Mathers you saw at Wigan. Honestly, I can't remember seeing a fullback make as many 1 on 1 'saves' as Mathers has for us. He made one on Sunday, holding Orford up over the line when he looked all the money to have scored. Also, in the first half with the line broken he made a trysaver, did the same at Hudds in the last round too.

I've never seen a 'held up' stat nor a 'line broken - fullback trysaver' but if there were, I'd wager he'd be up there for both.

Form full back over the last month?

What about Pat Richards?

I didnt see that no, but i dont think Briscoe is good enough for England either anyway.

Hopefully Widdop will live up to expectations, otherwise we are screwed, lets face it - the fullbacks who we are talking about here, and who we have available: Mathers, Briscoe, Leon Pryce, Wellens, etc are classes and classes and classes below what they produce in Australia.