Should be England hooker without doubt !

Yes, not quite as good as Latu

Hes better than Latu suprised you think Latu is better.

I agree with you on this one NGB4C. I haven't seen him have a bad one.

He's a great player, but is getting more attention this year due to Roby's lack of visibility; when Roby is fit, he's England's first choice hooker by a country mile.

Agree that Roby is the better of the two but the fact Houghton isn't in is a disgrace. He's been fantastic for the last three years. Then again he isn't at wigan or Leeds so Mcnamara isn't bothered about him. McIlorum is nowhere near as good as Lunt or Houghton (even Burrow or Robinson) but he will always get the nod as he's in the best team in the league.

Agree Houghton is a pretty impressive no9 and would do a decent job for England. Don't think Roby is a shoe-in anymore due to his recent injury problems etc.

He pushed Holdsworth close for the MoM yesterday, looked excellent.

Summed up McNamara's England selection, when he included Roby when he had just come back from a 10 week injury layoff! Would look to Houghton and Lunt, maybe Lunt would be in if he had still been at Leeds?

When Roby is fit, he's the best English hooker by some margin - there may be a bit of room this year for others to shine, but by the time the WC comes around, he'll be a shoe-in.

I was shocked to see Gary Schofield, in last weeks RL express, rate Englands top hookers in the following order:

McIlorum, Lunt, Roby, Higham, Clark, Houghton

They're all no doubt good players but for Houghton to be 6th on the list was strange to say the least.

McIlorum has a certain confrontational side to his game but at times that seems to be at the detriment to some of the hooking basics! Higham is having somewhat of a swansong in his careers twilight but Houghton has consistently outperformed both at the basics over the last few seasons.

Lunts a great player who's star is on the rise, Clarke likewise whilst Roby seems to be on somewhat of a decline. For me Houghtons kicking game and work rate in defense mark him out from the others.

Still wouldn't take any of them over Aiton

Mine out of them 6 would be:
Lunt, Houghton, Clarke, Roby, Higham and McIlorum IMO.

That was what I think are the best ones however if it was on form it would be Higham ahead of Roby.