A lot of people would say they go overboard on Tomkins but the commentary I've heard about Sinfiels these past two weeks has been borderline insane!

Didn't notice he was playing tonight and he was poor at Catalan coming up with a few errors yet you'd think he'd won both games on his own listening to the sky boys.

As a leader and a bloke Sinfield seems a good egg and I'm sure he'd say he was a little below par at the moment regardless of being brown nosed by Eddie and co.

Impressive stats, unfortunately he'll be back playing a minor support role once Briers is fit.

Tomkins is the best attack player in the UK.

Sinfield isn't even the best loose forward.

Good job he hasn't played at loose forward for three years then. At least watch the game before commenting.

Sinfield has to play for me, his kicking game and leadership is crucial. How anyone can say otherwise is beyond me. He's a proven leader and we would be a poorer team without him.

The question is who we play alongside him. I'd also be tempted (as suggested above) to at least try Tomkins in the halves against the Exiles and see what happens.

When we played the Aussies last they built their defensive game plan around stopping Tomkins and it worked, especially in the 4N final. We need different options, and going with Chase/Sinfield/Tomkins doesn't give any flexibility and is very obvious IMO.

Now we have options such as Hardaker at FB then I agree, why not try Sam at 6/7?

We will NEVER beat Australia by playing some form of unstructured, chuck the ball around and hope game. Australia will be moved around by halfbacks who plan and excute a whole set of 6. They will not be phased defensively by panicky offloads or hail mary passes.

Where I think England have a better chance than before is that if everyone is fit and on form we MAY have a pack that can stand up to Australia and even give them a bit of a kicking. If G+S Burgess, Graham, Ellis, Hock and a few others play to their best, I don't think Australia would fancy any kind of forward-oriented game at all.

Again a big if, but if all our best backs play to their absolute best - especially the 3/4s - then we at least look capable of matching Australia physically out wide (I wouldn't suggest for a second we look better).

So, if all goes well it would come down to halfbacks, where sadly we look hopelessly outgunned. I keep changing my mind on Tomkins - in attack he can play the same role regardless, it really comes down to where you want to put him in defence. Sometimes I think at fullback he'll have to make fewer tackles, and then I think of him being rained with bombs.

In any event McNamara picks Sinfield precisely because he offers control, and some kind of kicking game. Ideally we'd have Brough, Chase, Widdopp etc able to do the same. However, Brough looks sketchy at times, Widdopp doesn't run his team, and Chase has very little sense of control at all. I'd love it if GB had a better attacking option than Sinfield who could also control the game, but IMO we don't - or at least nobody who does it consistently.

In the end I suspect that no matter if all our players are fit and in the form of their lives, we'll come undone in large part through not having world class halfbacks. Tomkins is our one genuine hope there, but may be a bit outgunned in a Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader in the Empire Strikes Back kind of way.

Well summed up.

I think we need an element of surprise to beat them but we also just need some control from halfback. Sinfield and Tomkins could 'possibly' bring it for us.

No one has mentioned what could be an halfback partnership that could be devastating and take the Aussies by surprise.

Keven Sinfield and Paul Wellens.

Agree.
England should have a strong pack so they will need a #7 with a good kicking game and the ability to link with the back line, Sam Tomkins in particular.
They don't need a headless Chook like Rangi Chase, the best man for the job is Matty Smith.

Wilkin and Wellens by a mile. . . .

I'd like to see:

1 Lomax (provided he maintains his electric pre-injury form, Hardaker if not)
6 Tomkins
7 Sinfield

Ditto.

Sinfield's ability to control a game is crucial against Aus and NZ. I'm determined not to get excited about England as I've foolishly done that before, but if we can keep the main players fit and they fire on all cylinders then we've got the bones of a decent enough team.