Thought England just deserved to win it today very unfortunate at the end.

Should have kicked it dead

In my opinion Widdop is a must to play,as he showed on Saturday! How can you not include the regular starting stand/off for arguably the best team in the NRL, especially for a "New Zealander"?.

time to ship players out, like fevrover said, no room for sentimentality, sinfield wont be around for the next world cup as he will be mid 30s! same with the likes of burrow, time has come and gone for them on the international stage now, mcbananna needs to be working on a new half back pairing, hopefully with a recognised 6 and 7, not a player who couldn't get his own position in the squad so pushed out a natural half just to be in there!

The NRL has 16 top flight clubs producing and developing players, we have 13 (Cats not included), and are going to cut down to 11. This will be disastrous for any hopes of us competing with Australia or New Zealand. It's a selfish move by our clubs, entirely motivated by self interest, and not what is good for the game. All reducing teams will do is drive up players wages, and we'll be in the same situation, but with less players to choose from. Disgusing move imo.

Don't get to watch much nrl so just wondered what people's thoughts are on Jack Reed ??

He wears Union Jack boxers.

firstly make sam burgess captain, he's young, plays most of the game and has the respect of the players - a no brainer really

give macnamara at least a 4 nations series, he's not a world beating coach but who could we get to do the job, i've not heard one sensible or realistic option yet.

build the squad around key players in the key positions of 1,6,7, and the forwards - all of which are key positions in the modern game, then look at the weak areas (centre mostly) and identify young players and develop these players specifically for the task

get more of our players playing week in week out in the nrl. like it or not its the world's premier rl competition with the highest standards

i would love to see a separate body set up to run the national side, away from the rfl who make some strange decisions (e.g. pre tournament camp to south africa). i'll admit i'm not sure how this would be funded (sport england perhaps, along with private investment, major sponsor) but it should have dedicated physios, nutritionists, coaches, psychologists, pr professionals etc etc and report to one overall supremo. anyone who knows sport can see i am thinking along the lines of how british cycling have build up to their level of world dominance. it is clear we have outstanding young players kicking around - we need to get the best out of them. i'm not sure the rfl will ever deliver this whilst they have all the other rl matters to deal with

Don't worry mate, the RFL are making those exact appointments and have a team in place. The future of international rugby league is very bright.

Average in terms of NRL but can be brilliant on his day. There's a video of him breaking through defenders like they're tackle bags to score on youtube.

I think they may be thinking of returning the Coach to a part time appointment as it is in most other countries. It was mentioned on Humberside tonight!

Sam Burgess in interviews here has said he wants to live permanently in Australia and will apply for Australian citizenship. When asked if he would then want to play for Aus or GB/England he was non-committal on the question.

i think he'll always play for england/gb out of respect for his late father

That "self interest" is necessary to keep the game viable here. How would having 16 teams here help us to "produce and develop" players? Produce and develop average players perhaps. It's intensity of competition that will help develop the right standard of players and the only place to get that is in the NRL currently. Would George Burgess have developed the way he has over here? Our competition has to reduce in size and improve in quality and intesity. It's a tough ask but if it can be done it may stop some of the British talent going over to the NRL. If we can't do that then ultimately the NRL is quite capable of surviving without us especially with SOO already being deemed by many , probably rightly , to be the biggest RL series on the calendar. The one thing that may make the likes of Sam Burgess think twice about that sort of future where there is effectively no international competition beyond the Southern Hemisphere is that they will have to be content to have the NRL Grand Final as the pinnacle of their careers and ambition because , even with all of these nationality bending modern interpretations of rules I can't see them ever being allowed to play in SOO. Perhaps the fear of Union and it's ability to attract players because of it's international stage may persuade the powers that be in the NRL that they need to help the English/European game survive and improve but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Out of the current 13 English clubs, 12 had a hand in developing members of the England squad. The team that didn't was Salford. If lose 2 teams, that's 2 teams not developing England players.