Your England 17

[Blackpool_Pie]

With the World Cup coming up, who would you name in your starting 13 and 4 subs?
Do England have good enough players to mount a serious challenge?

[kitt green warriors]

1. Tomkins
2. Charnley
3. Goulding
4. Hardaker
5. Hall
6. Widdop
7. McGuire
8. Morley (seeing as he is captain)
9. Roby/McIllorum
10. Graham
11. Sam Burgess
12. Westwood
13. O'Loughlin

14. Crabtree
15. Ellis
16. Mossop
17. Roby/McIllorum

I tried not to be biased. I think Mc banana will pick Jack Reed instead of Goulding though.

[i'm spartacus]

Much as I like him and think he is a good centre, i'm not picking Goulding because I don't believe he has the physicality to cope with the Aussie centres.

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Josh Charnley
3. Jack Reed
4. Kallum Watkins
5. Ryan Hall
6. Gareth Widdop
7. Danny Brough
8. George Burgess
9. Micky McIllorum
10. James Graham
11. Liam Farrell
12. Sam Burgess
13. O'Loughlin

14. Crabtree
15. Chris Hill
16. Lee Mossop
17. Gareth Hock

[yoda warrior]

1. S. Tomkins
2. T. Briscoe
3. K. Watkins
4. J. Reed
5. R. Hall
6. K. Sinfield
7. R. Chase
8. L. Mossop
9. J. Roby
10.S. Burgess
11.G. Ellis
12.L. Farrell
13.S. O'Loughlin

14.G. Widdop
15.J. Graham
16.C. Hill
17.B. Westwood

Hard to choose between Briscoe and Charnley but Briscoe has been there for a while so i'll go with him. Nice to have some proper competition in that position for once. The halves will be the biggest talking point in the run up to the tournament. They've been working on the Sinfield-Chase partnership for 2 years and the main thing we've lacked in the last 15 years or so, is a settled pairing so i'd keep them together. Suppose there's still a slight chance that Chase could switch back to NZ by then but wait and see. We need to see more of Widdop in an England shirt, think he's been woefully underused. We could pick any number of combinations in the forwards and still look strong.
Can't wait for Cardiff!

[southernpie]

1. S. Tomkins
2. J. Charnley / T. Briscoe
3. D. Goulding / J. Reed
4. I. Thornley / K. Watkins / R. Atkins
5. R. Hall
6. G. Widdop / G. Widdop / K. Sinfield
7. M. Smith / J. Lomax / R. Chase
8. L. Mossop / L.Mossop / J. Graham
9. M. McIlorum / J. Roby
10.D. Crosby / G. Burgess / A. Morley
11.L. Farrell / S. Burgess / G.Ellis
12.G. Hock
13.S. O'Loughlin

14.S. Taylor / J. Graham / L. Mossop
15.S. Powell / M. McIlorum/ E. Crabtree
16.C. Tuson / G.Ellis / G. Widdop
17.T. Spencer / D. Griffin/ B. Westwood


Although it would be nice to see an England team mostly from Wigan again as per the first list, some of those are for the future and some are bettered by the second named player especially against the Aussies, this would be about my first choice. The third named player is who I wouldn't be surprised to see Macbanana go for.

[Wigan_forever1985]

1. Hardaker
2. Charnley
3. Reed
4. Yeamen
5. Hall
6. Tomkins
7. Brough (providing he can decide his country of origin)
8. G burgess
9. /McIllorum
10. Graham
11. Gaz hock
12. Westwood
13. O'Loughlin

14. Crabtree
15. Ellis
16. Burrow
17. S burgess

Few I prob should explain

Yes I have moved Sam from full back simply because he can't really catch and thrust on would have a field day with him

I've gone for yeamen and reed at centre for defensive reasons as the Aussies and kiwis are most potent there.

Tompkins at 6 so he can get his hands on the ball and run and broughs kicking game is as good as anyone's which is something you need

Micky mac any day at hooker in fact roby doesn't even make it in my squad not because he isn't a good player but he has no fire and one of the things we miss against the Aussies and kiwis is a bit of grunt that's why I gone with hock and Westwood. The Aussies in particular are bullies they love bullying teams they love pushing you back we need to fight fire with fire. Smash them and rattle them and suddenly they lose their aura and they do not like being faced up too. We need aggression and plenty of it. I like burrow as an option for the amount of positions he can cover plus how small he is makes him such a tricky person to play against. In my opinion we need big aggressive forwards and nimble backs to beat the Aussies with good catchers on wing and full back and solid centres

[markill]

Sam
Briscoe
Reed
Watkins
Hall
Widdop
Sinfield
Graham
Roby
Morley
Farrell
S Burgess
O'Loughlin

G Burgess
Crabtree
Ellis
Burrow

Charnley, McIlorum, Westwood, Mossop, Hardaker, Hock, McGuire

[cpwigan]

Much depends upon how GB want to play either irrespective of the opponents OR game by game. One good thing is we actually have choices and debate.

[TonyH]

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Josh Charnley
3. Darrell Goulding - Most underrated player in SL, Ryan Atkins shits himself at intl. level and can't tackle.
4. Kallum Watkins
5. Ryan Hall
6. Kevin Sinfield - as much as I dislike this it will probably happen.
7. Matty Smith - Some people say Widdop but Cronk makes him look good. Smith is the in form 7.
8. Lee Mossop
9. Michael McIlorum
10. James Graham
11. Ben Westwood
12. Liam Farrell
13. Sean O'Loughlin

14. Rob Burrow
15. George Burgess
16. Sam Burgess
17. Gareth Hock

[The Eclipse]

There's a story on this website about why Matty Smith should be England's halfback, he makes a few good points.
www.jasonemery.com.au