The new England captain. Wouldn't you know!!!!

Whgo'd have thought, the domestic game's most successful captain of his generation made national captain when Roby and Graham are both ruled out.

If he plays (which in the absence of Widdop it's hard to see him not doing) it's a no-brainer that he's captain.

Hardly surprising. out of any of the club captains who may make the England team he is the most successful @ club level so I dont see why he shoudlnt be given a chance.

He clearly knows how to motivate Leeds.......

He's proven himself to be an excellent captain, so not a shock really.

Hopefully he can lift something shiny in an England shirt in 2013...

not really got a problem with this, much as i dislike him intently in a Whinos shirt, he is a damned good player & motivator.
However i don't consider the upcoming games as any real test & if we don't put put a telephone number past the other teams, questions should be asked of McNamara (well, even [imore[/i questions than currently at least).

He's a fantastic player and I've no problem with him being captain for this series against Wales and France. I do worry though than McBanana is going to stick with him in the halves for next year's World Cup, he's been tried time and time again and he can't compete against the likes of Cronk, Thurston and Marshall.

he's the best skipper in SL and has provided good cover in the past for GB by being able to slot in at 9. therefore I don't see any issues here.
He is also in form and kicking well.
What is there to disagree with in this choice ?

If he was playing badly then that would be a different matter, but at present he would deserve his place in the team.

Tell us more about this - he only started playing in one of his normal positions fairly in the past couple of years and in the 4N last year the majority of England's tries came through him, he was Man of the Match vs New Zealand and effective in the Wembley game.

He's crap at international level.

I'm not sure I'd want him in the team just as a player, but as he is there, he makes sense as a captain absolutely. I won't be arguing next year either (if he is captain then) if we are crap and scrape through the group stages in the WC but go on to win when it matters

What do you define as his "normal" position now though? FWIW the NZ game you refer to I thought they were there for the taking and we let them stay in it for much longer than we should have, and this was down to the Sinfield and Chase partnership IMO. If we'd have had quicker, more structured attack during the spells where we had all the possession we'd have put some decent points on them.

For us to be effective against the Aussies and Kiwis then Tomkins has to get his hands on the ball chiming in from deep, we saw far too little of this during last year's 4N. I think this was due to the halfback combination (Chase being too "off the cuff" as well) and the coaching.

are you really trying to claim that sinfield is "off the cuff"?