FORUMS > Wigan Warriors > Your England Team |
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| If everyone is fully fit there are a few certainties and a few difficult decisions.
Full Back. Between Tomkins & Lomax for me. Lomax has been better this year, Sam was good in the handful of games he was fit for (up to the Wakefield game). It's difficult to call because of Sam's recent injuries, all things considered I'd go for Lomax however if Sam gets back to form and fitness he could change that.
Wingers. Manfredi IMO is the best we've got, I don't think Burgess is at the level of Hall or McGilvray yet, in a year or two I think he will overtake them. Tom Johnston could do the same. I'd got for McGilvray as he has a bit more pace but it's a tough call leaving Hall out.
Centres. Probably outer weakest position, I'd agree with the OP going for Watkins and Percival, the latter I expect to end up in the NRL if he wants to go, he reminds me of Newlove, brilliant player IMO.
Stand Off. I'm not jumping on the Williams band wagon just yet. I think he is a very good player but needs to improve his decision making at crucial times before making the step up to internationals. I'd go for Widdop but expect Williams to overtake him in a year or so.
Scrum Half. Easy IMO, Luke Gale.
Props. We hale plenty of good choices here, Graham and Hill are no brainers, I'd opt for George Burgess and Scott Taylor off the bench. Plenty off back up too with the likes of Tom Burgess, Walmsley & Watts.
Hooker. Hodgeson to start with Clark off the bench. Hodgeson is a top all round hooker and Clark gives a great impact. Roby can consider himself unlucky as he is still top class.
Second Row. Again a lot of choices here, I'd start with Bateman and Whitehead and bring Currie off the bench, plenty of other contenders, the best probably being Ward & Farrell.
Loose. Sam Burgess, he has to be in somewhere. SOL has been and still is a great player but his time in internationals is gone IMO.
Having said that my team is probably different to the one I picked 3 months ago and will probably be different mid way through next year.
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Club Coach | 29450 | ![](images/sitelogos/fullsize/28.png) |
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Nov 2004 | 20 years | |
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| Quote: Aboveusonlypie "I would agree with this. I just got a bit miffed with the whole new era thing under Bennett. I thought that McNamara did a decent job and was unfairly treated. Allowing for the relative resources available to national coaches Bennett won't have had to change much. So to start talking about us needing to 'learn' how to win annoyed me. The same group of players won well enough last year.
I'm afraid that I'm in the camp that says we should have an English coach in charge. We have plenty of English coaches to choose from for what is a part time job. In the past recently retired players like Ellery have done it. I see no reason why the likes of Paul Sculthorpe or Kevin Sinfield perhaps alongside Brian Noble wouldn't do just as good a job. Personally I'd have stuck with McNamara. If we are successful under Bennett it will only be because we got an Aussie in (or so the argument will go).
Luke Gale is the selection that doesn't add up to me. He has achieved nothing in his career. He plays for a mid table club who bottle it any time they get near a big game. Maybe if Bennett had picked George Williams he might have had a 'winners' mentality out there.'"
His big failing from Saturday was his pre match interview with Tanya Arnold which was rude bodering on plain weird! A chance to bull the game up and he seemed like he didn't want to be there.
McNamara did well overall I thought but I did feel it was time for a change to see if a new coach could take us on to that next level of winning either the four nations or the World Cup. That is ultimately what Bennett will be judged on and we'll have to wait until the end of next years World Cup to really judge him.
I do believe Wane, McDermott or Powell could have done the job to a very good standard but what always worries me with that is the internal politics that come with it. You always get those people who will say they're picking their favourites from their clubs and rumours quickly surface of friction in the squad between different clubs players if things aren't going well.
Who knows, in three weeks time we may be sat here as Four Nations winners. We can but dream!
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International Star | 1192 | ![](images/sitelogos/fullsize/28.png) |
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Apr 2010 | 14 years | |
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51209_1313399598.gif Regards , EW:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_51209.gif |
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| Quote: NickyKiss "His big failing from Saturday was his pre match interview with Tanya Arnold which was rude bodering on plain weird! A chance to bull the game up and he seemed like he didn't want to be there.
McNamara did well overall I thought but I did feel it was time for a change to see if a new coach could take us on to that next level of winning either the four nations or the World Cup. That is ultimately what Bennett will be judged on and we'll have to wait until the end of next years World Cup to really judge him.
I do believe Wane, McDermott or Powell could have done the job to a very good standard but what always worries me with that is the internal politics that come with it. You always get those people who will say they're picking their favourites from their clubs and rumours quickly surface of friction in the squad between different clubs players if things aren't going well.
Who knows, in three weeks time we may be sat here as Four Nations winners. We can but dream!'"
After watching that interview and others on Saturday i got the distinct impression that Bennett has taken the England job just to put two fingers up to the Australian Rugby League management and others. He gives the impression he doesn't give a toss about English Rugby League either in his words or his body language .
Regards , EW
See you all in Coventry ![DANCE icon_biggrin.gifANCE:](images/smilies//eusa_dance.gif)
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International Star | 4691 | ![](images/sitelogos/fullsize/28.png) |
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| I tend to agree, EW. Was talking about it on an Aussie forum the other day, and when I made a similar comments about Bennett's attitude, body language, etc, the comment came back, ah, it's Wayne Bennett, he's always been like that with the media. I pointed out that that might not be so bad in Australia, where he's revered as the Greatest Coach Evah, etc, but in England it's a different story, and any casual viewer seeing an interview excerpt on the TV news is just going to think, who's that pig-ignorant Aussie?
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International Chairman | 5443 | ![](images/sitelogos/fullsize/28.png) |
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| Bennett has said that Williams will definitely play.
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Rank | Posts | Team |
International Star | 1439 | No Team Selected |
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Sep 2014 | 10 years | |
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| Quote: Biff Tannen "Extremely weak squad is way wide of the mark imo. They were missing Tamaulolo, obviously a big miss but we were missing Sam and George Burgess in the pack so that evens it out.... basically we are talking Shaun Johnson, who is a huge player for them and the difference. Rest of that team is very similar to the one that took the park at the weekend. That team also has RTS in it -
FB 1 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
RW 2 Jason Nightingale
RC 3 Jordan Kahu
LC 4 Dean Whare
LW 5 Shaun Kenny-Dowall
FE 6 Peta Hiku
HB 7 Tuimoala Lolohea
PR 8 Jesse Bromwich
HK 9 Issac Luke (Captain)
PR 10 Sam Moa
SR 11 Kevin Proctor
SR 12 Tohu Harris
LK 13 Adam Blair (Captain)
Substitutions
Difference is Shuan Johnson is probably the best player in the world and (unlike any England player) has the ability to win game from nothing.
Look at the 2013 semi (before Johnson had developed into a world class player), Sinfield had him on toast for 79 minutes, but when his team truly needed him he came up with the goods.
I just don't see Widdop or even Gale doing that at international level.
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