If Gregory and Edwards were so good and Edwards apparently better than most of his Australian counterparts.......



How come neither won a series against Oz?

I see the posts about the hard uncompromising forwards that were around in the eighties and early nineties and the "World class" backs like Offiah, Edwards, and Lydon and what did they win?

Far more games then this current bunch have done?



During the days of Hanley, Edwards, Schofield etc we were at least always competative but not anymore.



When the Aussies can be bothered turning up against us anymore they'll always put at least 30-40 points on us until we start to produce better players.

Your comparing a Subaru with a ferrari there mate. Players like long briers and goulding are cheap imitation sports cars compared to the real deal and players of edwards' calabre

Ok .....good analysis there Gary!!

maybe cos there are 13 blokes ina rugby team not 2

And we've been just as "competative" since those players retired. The teams of the late 80s and 90s won just as much as the current crop. The fact is we were 5hit then and we're 5hit now, and I'm not convinced the young players coming through will change anything. No doubt the likes of Myler and Westerman will get their chance, be average for 1 or 2 games, and be written off as not good enough, and then the cries will start again for "the youngsters to be given a chance"... and so the cycle continues.

I don't remember regular 30-40-50 point hidings at the hands of Australia during the late 80's-early 90's.



We may have been beaten in series against them and in world cups but they were alot closer then the way we've pushed them in the past 4-5 years.



We got beat by 40+ points in the world cup, in the tri nations final of 2004 and by nearly 60 points in the one off test over there aswell a few years back. That never used to happen.



We pushed them to the edge in 1992 and in 1995 aswell as in Ashes series before that.



We may not have even been any good back then but i tell you we were a dam site better then we are now

I would go with a youthful team. Nothing to lose so why not give some of the young lads ago?



Briscoe

Ainscough

Shenton

Lee Smith

Hall

McGuire? Any other young British stand offs?

Myler

Luke Burgess

Diskin

James Graham

Burnett

Sam Buress

Westerman



Cant think of another young stand off playing in SL. To be honest I think that would do a job on the French team. Try get them playing together as I see some of them being in the GB team for years to come.

Tomkins? wheeler?

McGuire, and Pryce are in better form anyway, and I don't think Wheeler has played 6 that much this season.

Just the first young standoffs i could think of, plus i thouhgt the idea was to name some new young talent to be given a chance.

1. Lee Smith

2. Peter Fox

3. Michael Shenton

4. Ryan Atkins

5. Ryan Hall

6. Danny McGuire

7. Rob Burrow/Richie Myler

8. James Graham

9. James Roby

10. Luke Burgess

11. Sam Burgess

12. Paul Clough

13. Joe Westerman

Start with Burrow then bring Myler off the bench and move Burrow to hooker and give Roby a rest.

FB: Lee Smith/Sean Briscoe

LW: Ryan Hall

LC: Michael Shenton

RC: Martin Gleeson/Ryan Atkins

RW: Peter Fox

SO: Leon Pryce

SH: Richie Myler

P: Andy Lynch

HK: James Roby

P: James Graham

SR: Sean O'Loughlin

SR: Gareth Hock

LF: Joe Westerman



SUB: Rob Burrow

SUB: Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook

SUB: Sam Burgess

SUB: Ben Westwood



18th Man: Paul Clough

Sam Tomkins

Paul Clough

Kyle Eastmond is too soft to play at international level, he struggles in superleague with with physical side of it, he has no chance of tackling Kite, Bailey, Blair, Vatuvai but it would be quite funny watching it





I can imagine Vatuvai running through him and after he has scored picking the splattered Eastmond off the palm of his had like a splattered fly on a windscreen

Peacock is by far the best captain we have he leads by example and has the respect of the other players. Out of interest who you put at captain?

while i tend to agree with you about peacock i was'nt happy with the way he carried himself during the world cup...

were you happy with any of them?

Quality player.



Should be in the side against France and the quad nations squad(but probably not in the 17).

Opta's England team:

P Wellens (St Helens)

D Hodgson (Huddersfield)

M Gleeson (Wigan)

M Shenton (Castleford)

R Hall (Leeds),

L Pryce (St Helens)

L Robinson (Huddersfield)

J Graham (St Helens)

J Roby (St Helens)

J Peacock (Leeds)

G Hock (Wigan)

J Wilkin (St Helens)

S O'Loughlin (Wigan)



[iInterchange:[/i

S Burgess (Bradford)

E Dowes (Hull)

K Sinfield (Leeds)

D McGuire (Leeds)

19 man England squad for game against France



Ryan Atkins Sam Burgess Shaun Briscoe Tony Clubb Eorl Crabtree

Peter Fox James Graham Ryan Hall Gareth Hock Danny McGuire

Scott Moore Adrian Morley Richard Myler Sean O’Loughlin Jamie Peacock

James Roby Michael Shenton Sam Tomkins Ben Westwood



Now choose your teams

Briscoe

Fox

Shenton

Atkins

Hall

McGuire

Myler

Burgess

Roby

Morley

Peacock

Hock

O'Loughlin

Subs

Graham

Westwood

Clubb

Crabtree

Left out

Tomkins and Moore

Briscoe

Fox

Atkins

Shenton

Hall

McGuire

Myler

Graham

Moore

Peacock

Hock

O'Loughlin

Burgess



subs

Morley

Crabtree

Clubb

Roby



Westwood and Tomkins to miss out imo but it'll probably be Clubb and Tomkins.

Briscoe

Fox

Atkins

Shenton

Hall

McGuire

Myler



Graham

Moore

Peacock

Hock

Westwood

O'Loughlin



Morley

Burgess

Roby

Clubb



Tomkins

Crabtree