The problem I find with Eastmond is that if the going gets tough his game tends to go a bit awry and he tries to be superman. Rather then controlling a game by field position kicking and 'clever' plays he tries to pull off the spectacular. It'll come with age and experience I suppose.

I agree on the Brough, for all his failings he was the best option avalaible, and on his day can be deadly. I personally think that his faults at 7 are very similar to Robinson (although he did have a reasonable tour) but he has the superior kicking game (hence why he gets the 7 slot for hudds in front of robbo).

Will be interesting to see how Myler gets on this year, hopefully he will kick on this year and become the player he threatened to be at Salford. With a developed Myler and fit Eastmond at 6 & 7 and Tompkins at 1 we might see some improvement.

Of course Roby is a far superior hooker to Burrows but I'm talking a couple of very short 10/12min spells and I think Burrows would be quicker at finding the hole behind the ruck quicker than Roby.

Agree about McGuire but as Barham Red said, we need someone with a consistent kicking game cos is a joke year on year. It must be so depressing for our forwards who know they have the wood over the Aussie pack yet are let down by pathetic field kicking and inept backs.

I think we need a player who can play at halfback & be good at hooker like Luke Robinson (Burrows could do it) Roby should be there for most of the game but he needs a rest at times but England can,t have the luxury of two hookers in the 17 (even if we had two) If Murrel improves he might be good enough for the utillity spot. The biggest problem we have is that there is just not enough International fixtures to gain experiance.

Why???

It is surely better to have specialists in both positions. This clamour for multi positional players is killing the game over here, the end result being that they become totally ineffective.

Also there is no time to gain experience at International level, there are no practice runs. When you are picked for your country you are expected to do a job straight away based on your ability and the experience you have gained at club level.

Murrell at 6 would have given us a better option and a kicker. Think we are further behind the Aussies now then 5 years ago.

Murrell although a good stop gap for us last year, post Cooke, still wasn't good enough as a 6. Great player to have on the pitch and at 13 he gives us another kicking option (similar to as Sinfield at Leeds) but his severe lack of pace rules him out of being a top class 6.

1 to 13 should be specialists in thier positions but we need a utility back to cover in case of injuries in the match, the other three subs tend to be big forwards these days,
As you say there is no time to gain experiance & there lies the whole problem untill we go back to proper tours with more games & a proper international series with clubs giving up there players as soccer. cricket & union do the international game will fizzel out & with it any chance of serious media coverage for our game. The big hurdel there is that the Aussies dont give a dam about the game except for the NRL & origin.

Step up Benny Cockayne, one of the better players we had last season imo and coming off the bench can cover plenty of positions and pick up the tempo of a game when needed.

couldn't agee more about charlie

Ben Cockayne will never play for England, even if he scores 50 tries and is M.O.M every week it still wont happen.