England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:10 am  

England team: Jonny Lomax; Jermaine McGillvary, Kallum Watkins, John Bateman, Ryan Hall; Gareth Widdop, Luke Gale; Chris Hill, Josh Hodgson, James Graham; Sam Burgess, Elliott Whitehead, Sean O'Loughlin (c).

Replacements: Alex Walmsley, Chris Heighington, Thomas Burgess, James Roby.

What do people think.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:27 am  

No Percival? Bateman in his place? Prepare for the VT to self combust.

Chris Heighington is lucky to get a spot.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:38 am  

TonyM19 wrote:

No Percival? Bateman in his place? Prepare for the VT to self combust.

Chris Heighington is lucky to get a spot.

+1, Bateman has a really tough job there. The writing was on the wall when Bateman and Currie played there last week and Percival came off the bench on the wing

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:36 pm  

Ashton Bears wrote:

England team: Jonny Lomax; Jermaine McGillvary, Kallum Watkins, John Bateman, Ryan Hall; Gareth Widdop, Luke Gale; Chris Hill, Josh Hodgson, James Graham; Sam Burgess, Elliott Whitehead, Sean O'Loughlin (c).

Replacements: Alex Walmsley, Chris Heighington, Thomas Burgess, James Roby.

What do people think.

Like others unsure about Bateman when we have Percival but I assume Bennett is looking for a defensive stint rather than an attacking one.
I wouldn't know Heightington is I fell over him.
I hope that Widdop steps up to the plate. I have always found him disappointing when he has played previously for England and I just hope that on Friday he can make amends.
Glad that Roby has got a place as his form at the end of the season was very good.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:51 pm  

I get Bateman to be fair. They have a couple of big centres and Bateman will cope with that physicality without too many problems.

Heighington I'm not as sure on when you have the likes of Currie and McMeekan available but he's experienced and certainly doesn't strike me as somebody who will let you down.

Overall a fair team. Let's hope we give a good account of ourselves.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 6:39 pm  

Someone on the Casforum is asking why 'Captain Marvel' has been selected and surely there must be someone better...... Well there isn't and there isn't by a long way. I would love to know who is a better captain to have out there than Lockers. It's obvious that the rest of the squad look up to him. It's the Wigan envy i suppose. We only have 2 players in the squad and every bugger is having a pop at them. At least Sam isn't there this time for the Leeds fans to harass this time.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:42 pm  

Does anyone give us a chance against the Greayn & Gawlds? There is a lot of class in that team, even the squad players. I expect Frizell and one of if not both Trobojevic brothers on the bench. Whoever they name will for sure make a difference to the game when they come on. We all know about Slater, Dugan, Cronk and Smith and are the main dangers for me. I like Holmes and Gagai but are nowhere near the quality that has gone before them. The rest of the squad although is strong, looks very average for an Australian side. If Inglis and Thurston were in there it would look at different side but they arent and on paper it shows. In their own back yard or not i think they are there for the taking if our mind set is 100%. Pity i cant get the game off work

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 9:30 pm  

Cherry_Warrior wrote:

Someone on the Casforum is asking why 'Captain Marvel' has been selected and surely there must be someone better...... Well there isn't and there isn't by a long way. I would love to know who is a better captain to have out there than Lockers. It's obvious that the rest of the squad look up to him. It's the Wigan envy i suppose. We only have 2 players in the squad and every bugger is having a pop at them. At least Sam isn't there this time for the Leeds fans to harass this time.

The drivel about Lockers is constant on the Facebook groups. He's so big for England it's untrue. He didn't play last year and we stank. He played the year before, we beat the Kiwis and he was man of the series. He's been man of the series on a few occasions for England and every coach and player he's worked alongside knows exactly how good he is.

I watched Brian Noble picking his best 1-13 on Rugby AM from all the players he's coached and he described Lockers as a sensational player. He said he was the man who held every side together and could do it all. If you wanted a tough carry, a sensational cut out pass, a little kick through close to the line etc then they'd just say 'give it to Lockers'.

I hope he and England have a brilliant tournament. This could be his last involvement with England and if it is, then it would be nice to see him go out on a high.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Tue Oct 24, 2017 10:30 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

The drivel about Lockers is constant on the Facebook groups. He's so big for England it's untrue. He didn't play last year and we stank. He played the year before, we beat the Kiwis and he was man of the series. He's been man of the series on a few occasions for England and every coach and player he's worked alongside knows exactly how good he is.

I watched Brian Noble picking his best 1-13 on Rugby AM from all the players he's coached and he described Lockers as a sensational player. He said he was the man who held every side together and could do it all. If you wanted a tough carry, a sensational cut out pass, a little kick through close to the line etc then they'd just say 'give it to Lockers'.

I hope he and England have a brilliant tournament. This could be his last involvement with England and if it is, then it would be nice to see him go out on a high.

Exactly the same kinds of morons who used to bag Andy Farrell, before him Ellery Hanley, and before him Billy Boston.

The perfect illustration of why, as the old adage says, if you listen to people sitting in the stands, you'll end up sitting with them.

Re: England name team for Friday against Australia. : Wed Oct 25, 2017 12:09 pm  

Cherry_Warrior wrote:

Does anyone give us a chance against the Greayn & Gawlds? There is a lot of class in that team, even the squad players. I expect Frizell and one of if not both Trobojevic brothers on the bench. Whoever they name will for sure make a difference to the game when they come on. We all know about Slater, Dugan, Cronk and Smith and are the main dangers for me. I like Holmes and Gagai but are nowhere near the quality that has gone before them. The rest of the squad although is strong, looks very average for an Australian side. If Inglis and Thurston were in there it would look at different side but they arent and on paper it shows. In their own back yard or not i think they are there for the taking if our mind set is 100%. Pity i cant get the game off work

Morgan was a standout player in the playoffs the Cowboys scraped into the 8 but he lead them around and got them to a final, they were expected to drop out in the first rund. I was guilty of thinking he just followed Thurston around, but he has shown enough to get the place in the Aussie team.