Danny (bloody Braveheart) Brough . Dont get me started , not good for the heart at my age .

What a depressing squad - How the hell the likes of Atkins, JJB and Wilkin got in shows that McNamara is a feckw[ii[/it.

Was a real chance to give the likes of Lomax, McGillvary, Mossop, Faz and Patrick a chance to prove themselves. Was 50/50 whether to go but to see the same old faces who failed on numerous occasions given yet another chance means I'll watch it on the box and hope the Exiles stuff them.

Trust McNamara to put together a squad to dampen down any hype about this fixture.

I was looking forward to it as well, but England could get mullered here.

I'm not a fan of McBanana, don't have much faith in him as a 1st team coach.
However we could have a strong (ish) England team when the lads who are playing in the NRL join up for the 4 nations.

Tomkins
Hall Shenton Yeaman Briscoe (With Gleeson/Bridge Atkins)
Widdop Brough (With Brown Robinson Sinfield)
Graham Sinfeld Morley (With Carvell Peacock Mossop Prescott etc)
Burgess Ellis (With Westwood Tomkins etc)
Lockers (Sinfeld, Harrison etc)

The England coach has selected 22 players for his squad meaning 5 won't play.
No doubt the Exiles will have done the same.
It may be that not all our players named will play so that could minimise the problem.
I can't imagine for a minute that Mcguire doesn't know by now who'll play in the game and who won't.
He'll base his Cas selection on that.

Wilkin?

Carvell - I can understand as he's been playing great.

Peacock? No. For a couple of reasons, firstly, we know when he's on form he can do it at international level, no doubts about that, and if he played the rest of the season then he'd be playing for England at the end of the year. But he hasn't been playing well at the minute, so what will he or England gain from him playing? He won't be overawed by playing Aus or NZ, so why not play someone who is in form, and would benefit greatly from the high intensity situation that the RFL are trying to create with this match. They want to bridge the gap between SL and International games, so they pick out of form players who've already been exposed to International rugby many times before.

Watching the coverage of the SO game and the City v Country. One of the commentators I think it was Hindmarsh said he prefered to play the next day after a rep match. The muscles were tighter and bruised two days after a big game.

Nothing to be gained from playing a lot of the squad picked. Players need to be brought up a level now not thrown in at the end of the season. State of Origin gives the selector two teams to pick from for the Aus team. We have the one team playing and McNamara goes with the same faces. How are McGilveray, Welham, Farrell, Lomax etc ever going to replace tried and failed players?

Cant get excited at an England squad, for the last 15 years, they've not gone forward internationally at all, and with Banana in charge, I cant see it changing.

I dont mind seeing a squad that doesn't have the tag 'looking to the future', but many of the players have been picked on reputation, not on form.

Maybe they should of thought about a double header with an England A vs France as well to promote the young players. A team like ...

Cudjoe
McGillvary
Lawrence
Welham
Watkins
Wheeler
Lomax
Mossop
Clarke
Prescott
Clough
Farrell
Harrison

Dont think they would do to bad myself.

Playing it on the Saturday afternoon in a double header with the new "Knights" against France would have been perfect imo and is a missed opportunity. Only downside would be even more players away from their club but then again I dont think there should be SL fixtures on the same weekend anyway!