If you were Isaac Luke, who would you rather face and why? I'm with Conroy on this for the very reasons we have both stated.
Nobody is saying Roby shouldn't play, it's just what is better for England that is obviously dividing opinion.

We could have exactly the same discussion regarding Westwood and Farrell.

I would go:

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Cudjoe
Hall
Sinfield
Widdop
Graham
McIlorum
Hill
S Burgess
Westwood
O'Loughlin

Roby
G Burgess
Ferres
Mossop (Scott Taylor would have got in the squad above him for me)

I would look to move S Burgess into the front row on occasions and have a pack of Burgess Roby Burgess Ferres Westwood Lockers. If the Burgess boys could get a quick PTB then Roby could cause havoc.

But it's not as simple as that, is it? The kiwis have a big pack who Burrow might manage to run around if he gets a quick ptb. Also, what about support play? If one of the forwards makes a break they're far more likely to find Burrow backing up than McIlorum. I'm not trying to have a go at McIlorum btw he's had a great season, I can just see pros and cons to both players

You're still talking like:
a) hookers spend the game in some sort of individual face-off with each other; and
b) Isaac Luke would be scared of MM for some reason; a player he's probably never heard of let alone fears.

I would strongly suggest that Isaac Luke, and indeed all the Kiwis, would rather face any other hooker than James Roby, given that he is the best England has. They're probably more concerned about winning the game.

I wonder if fans of NRL sides whinge like we do over the Aussie side. I wonder if Manly and Melbourne fans argue over Cherry-Evans and Cronk? Would Thurston and the other QLD players get booed in Sydney?

Of course it did, but our Saints "friends" can't see it.
It's horses for courses, and I would have gone with the Mickey Mac / Roby combination. However it's not going to happen (unless MM gets back from the Dylan concert) so let's get behind the England team no matter which club they play for.

According to McNamara, MM has a back injury.

Taken from Sporting Life site.

"Wigan hooker Michael McIlorum was another absentee from England's final training run at Wembley after being left out of the team to face the Kiwis.

"With Mickey it's different," McNamara said. "He's got a back injury and had a scan in Liverpool yesterday. He's back with one of our medical staff, Chris Brookes, in Greater Manchester now.

"We need to get that back issue sorted out for Mickey. That's very, very important.

"We're hopefully it will be sorted out and he'll recover."

And yet he wrote on his twitter how he was disappointed with the coach's decision not to select him.

Inlgis, Gallen?..actually every decent RL player has physicality and aggression? ....

To be fair us Wigan fans started the booing when Lee Smith & Danny Maguire where targeted by the Aussies in 2008(??) I remember being in the south stand booing the pair of them, defensively they were a disgrace and subsequently got subsituted. Its no wonder Leeds fans boo Tomkins, but the difference is he has never played as poor as what those two clowns did that day...

Those attributes will only get you so far ON THEIR OWN, which is quite obviously what I meant.

Running will only get you so far.... as long as its forwards towards the try line. Aggression is 99% in RL, pussys play wendyball

That is such a moronic, blinkered view on rugby league. Aggression is 99%??? Really???

So a really angry, aggressive, physically-intimidating no.6 with little speed, skill, vision or creativity is more valuable than Jonathan Thurston?