Congratulations to the pair of them but no Danny Houghton? Reckon Lineham & Crooks would of definitely been in there aswell if it wasn't for injuries.

Well done to them and especially Chris Green, as I mentioned on another thread I think green could step up and replace Lynch this year, I thought at times last year he was unfairly dropped.

Apart from Cockayne (more to do with his his than ability), it is good youthful looking squad.

What is the point of the England Knights? I say that based on the Cockayne selection. He was in the train-on squad back in March (don't really know how/why) but surely the Knights is like a development squad, and should therefore look at young players who can get better? It would be best served as an U-23 exercise IMO.

Exactly, he looks the odd one out in that squad.

My team from that Squad would be:

Lomax
BJB
Thornley
Sarginson
Makinson
Ratchford
Myler
Watts
Hodgson
Taylor
Whitehead
Lawrence
Singleton

Green
Crosby
Powell
Jones


If you get Lineham and Crooks into that then it looks very good

We're is Houghton ? Have I missed something ?

Injured or just better players available?

Lunt's got more cause for complaint IMO.

What I don't get is, if the England Knights are supposed to have a chance of being in contention for the full England squad like Purtill reckons, why are there still players who should have been in with a shout of the full squad not even in the Knights squad?

Don't think he's injured and can't be because of better players as Hodgsons in the squad

Possibly opted out , a few who are missing ?

Maybe some are on standby and have gone to South Africa.

you could have a point here, there may be a group of players who have been earmarked to step into the WC squad should there be a few injuries, especially when you consider the grand final is still to be played. the likes of crabtree, lunt and houghton may be in this group, though one doubts there are 2 hookers in that group

I've always been unsure of the selection criteria for the England Knights. I thought McNamara used this squad to build for the future of England, yet players like Ben Cockayne have been picked.

I think that is the case as Crabtree said he was going to have an op instead, but that's what I don't get. If there's a standby list, then the England Knights players aren't next in line, so why is Purtill talking about them forcing their way into the full squad? Clearly they're not going to. Which puts us back to what Sir Stan said; what exactly is the Knights squad for?