As an England fan this thread is extremely encouraging. Roll on the 2013 World Cup.

Id have both Gaskell and Lomax. Gaskells short kicking game is superb and hes an awkward runner of the ball, decent frame to pack some muscle on as he gets older. I think Gaskell will kick on and become the more successful of the two.

Agreed, it's nice to have a decent selection of backs to chose from for a change!

Tomkins
Briscoe
Charnley
Hall
Jones-Bishop
Owen
Watkins
Reed
Arundel
Cudjoe
Welham
Hardaker
Wheeler
Widdop
Gaskell
Lomax
Myler

You can create a young, exciting backline with those players. We obviously still don't have anywhere near the talent pool of in Oz but atleast the team shouldn't be picking itself come the 2013 WC. The players above are just those who are currently playing SL regularly, hopefully there will be a few more who have come through by then as well. I'd say the only worry would be a lack of any real quality cover for Sam.

Definitely wheeler, lomax and Gaskell. makinson is also pretty good but would end up a squad player at Wigan for a while, we already have them. Going off last nights defensive display Jamie Foster is going to struggle to keep his place in a young Saints back line.

There is no doubt we're finally taking our quality kids onto the next level and it all bodes well for the world cup. These kids along with charnley etc should be included in the England set up now so we have a pool of quality kids and proven experience come 2013. Competition for places in an England -who would have thought it!

jones-bishop will mature into a top quality full back if given the chance.

Reed, Watkins, Shenton and Bridge in the centres. It's only 3 years since Sykes for getting a game there, how things have changed for the better.

Makinson's one of the best they have IMO.....would have him at centre in a flash - He battered us from there in both the P/o games last season and was pretty decent last night.

I like Gaskell. He has a lot of potential and there are many times I have seen him where he looks better than Lomax who is a bit greedy for my liking. I think Gaskell could turn out to be the better of the two. Wheeler is a talent but is a Stand Off and is never a centre where he is very weak defensively. I think he is a better Stand Off than Lomax but needs to stay injury free before Saints will even think about putting him back in a pivotal position.

Foster is a cracking kicker and thats it. It is unbelievable how hyped up and overated he is. Makinson is average, although better than Foster, and is no where near as good as say Charnley.

Not into Foster but Wheeler Makinson Gaskell and Lomax are all very good players who i think could push for Int spots in their careers.

Makinson played on the wing in both those games.

Foster reminds me a little bit of Steve Tyrer. When Tyrer broke into the Saints team he was massively over-hyped by Eddie and Stevo because he got a few tries and was scoring lots of points because he was a good goalkicker. They ignored the fact that he was defensively weak and now Tyrer is playing for Halifax.

Foster has to improve if he's to avoid going the same way.

Those young Saints players are very good individually but playing together they are a nightmare.
Dureau ran to his right side with Gaskell, Wheeler and Foster playing out there and he took them apart. With an experienced guy like him, younger players are very vulnerable when under pressure. Who and where was the left sided 2nd rower?
Lomax needed to make one tackle on Millard and they'd have won the game. He missed the tackle completely and it brought the try which was converted for Cats win.
Saints needed more experienced players out there last night.

Ted,
Do you not think that Saints remind you of Wigan around 2003/2004. We had the likes of Brown, Robinson, Wild, Aspinwall, Lockers etc who were all good players in their own right coming into the team but when they came up against the "big boys" week in week out they struggled and lost their confidence.
The crowd got on their back (Foster now at Saints) and in the end many of them moved on.

i wish you had foster, he is nearly as bad as sean day. good kicker both of them but crap apart from that

If Foster couldn't kick he be struggling to have a squad number at saints never mind a starters spot.

Well that's stopped all that nonsense about Wigan getting Wheeler thank the lord.