Team v NZ on sat

[mano]

1 wellens
2 calderwood
3 senior
4 gleeson
5 smith
6 pryce
7 burrow
8 graham
9 roby
10 peacock
11 westwood
12 purdham
13 ellis

14 wilkin
15 higham
16 morley
17 sinfield

got a text from a player with the team news not sure if he is takeing the p:ss with that line up we will all find out sat morning.[ps don't shot if its wrong]

[Sutty]

That's slightly different from this one, which was posted on the BBC website,

New Zealand: Lance Hohaia; Sam Perrett, Simon Mannering, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei; Benji Marshall, Nathan Fien; Nathan Cayless (capt), Thomas Leuluai, Adam Blair, Sika Manu, David Fa'alogo, Jeremy Smith.
Replacements: Issac Luke, Greg Eastwood, Bronson Harrison, Sam Rapira.

England: Paul Wellens; Mark Calderwood, Martin Gleeson, Keith Senior, Lee Smith; Leon Pryce, Rob Burrow; Adrian Morley, Mickey Higham, Jamie Peacock (captain); Gareth Ellis, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Rob Purdham.
Replacements (two to be omitted): James Graham, Ben Westwood, James Roby, Kevin Sinfield, Jon Wilkin, Gareth Hock.

Referee: Shayne Hayne (Aus)

[pemps]

No Gareth Hock?

Rob Purdham?

We've no chance.

I'm more concerned about the inclusion of Wilkin

[robjoenz]

Doesn't matter who gets selected, it's the players mentality that means we'll get beaten.

Gleeson clearly knocks on, he complains about it... Westwood clearly makes a late challenge yet he argues it. Wellens clutches at straws complaining to officials for the first two Kiwi tries and as a result gives the kicker an extra 10 metres on the first one.

[gpartin]

Doesn't matter who gets selected, it's the players mentality that means we'll get beaten.

Gleeson clearly knocks on, he complains about it... Westwood clearly makes a late challenge yet he argues it. Wellens clutches at straws complaining to officials for the first two Kiwi tries and as a result gives the kicker an extra 10 metres on the first one.

I agree in general Rob but when there are players in the squad who get picked regardless of how crap they are it does little to encourage them to improve their mentality... Same problem at Wigan imo.

[cpwigan]

Rob that is too simplistic a notion from your referee eyes.

Andy Gregory / Wally Lewis would argue with referees all match and still be world class.

Kelvin Skerret / Les Boyd would king hit an opponent and carry on as if nothing happened.

A dismissal often sees teams play better with 12 men than 13 men.

England / North Hemisphere fail to execute basic plays and are not as well coached. Thus they lack the methodology and patience to execute an 80 minute effort.

[wall_of_voodoo]

I hope the rumours surrounding a possible approach by the parramatta eels for tony smith come to fruition.

Anyone that willingly selects non-english players in the english team has serious credibility problems - and i personally do not care one jot anyone else's opinion about the rights of picking "form" players or "residency qualified" players with the likes of maurie fa'asavalu in the england team.

The competition was discredited with the "break-up" of the home nations and the subsequent realisation that all the teams were woefully short of quality /numbers to justify such a decision in the first place, hence the "rash" of aussies not good enough to make the australian squad, appearing for scotland, ireland etc. Never mind the fact that it simply reduced england to the ranks of (just about) of 3rd best team, and worse, losing all credibility with the london based media in the process.

[Mike]

wall - who in the other home nation teams would have been in the england squad? I don't think it weakened us at all.

rob - in the past there has been a psychological barrier to England/GB beating Aus - we've been very close in the past but not quite got over the line, but this time we were miles behind. We are deficient in skill and preparation. Right now the Aussies are at 50% to beat us easily. The current generation are no where near good enough.

[wall_of_voodoo]

wall - who in the other home nation teams would have been in the england squad? I don't think it weakened us at all.

Fair point! This was more down to injuries to players and a poor selection policy.

However, it is also fair to say that virtually all the super league players would have been able to play for more than just england out of the home nation teams due to the parent/grandparent rules etc. So england had the "first pick" so as to speak, before the chaff was left to scotland and ireland, both of whom have no recognised professional top flight league to support such teams in the first place.

[trotski_tgwu]

wall - who in the other home nation teams would have been in the england squad? I don't think it weakened us at all.

Fair point! This was more down to injuries to players and a poor selection policy.

However, it is also fair to say that virtually all the super league players would have been able to play for more than just england out of the home nation teams due to the parent/grandparent rules etc. So england had the "first pick" so as to speak, before the chaff was left to scotland and ireland, both of whom have no recognised professional top flight league to support such teams in the first place.

And why is that? might be because the RL Bigshots are promoting the game in France and Wales of all places. Id love to see more put into the game in Scotland as i think we do have a fan base. There was a great turnout for the WC qualifier against Wales, Who DID'nt Qualify. Wonder Why? and the team that beat them was not full of SL players most were fron NL1 or NL2 And at least they played with pride and passion.