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Well done JP a great servant to England and the right call.
For me the new Captain should be Roby or Graham.

In Sinfield and O'Loughlin you have 2 guys that have captained the Grand Final winning team for the last 5 years, surely you can't look past those two, especially not for Tomkins (or anybody) who hasn't captained at club level yet. Plus why put the extra responsiblity on him, just let him go out there and concentrate on playing like he does.
I think it will be Sinfield, but i would go for O'Loughlin because i think Sinfield might copy Peacock down the International retirement road after next years World Cup and that would leave us needing to fill the role again.

As for James Graham, i think the RFL will want a SL based player to be the captain and not an NRL based one. Considering the get-togethers over the course of the year the England team have as well as the Exiles games i think your leader has to be there all the time, not just come the end of the season.

JP appears to be under the illusion that he's retired from internationals as a winner in his final appearance.

I'm pretty sure his final international appearance was a 30-8 loss to Australia at Elland Rd last year.

craigizzard wrote:

Tomkins has shown nothing to suggest he could be a captain, and it might detract from his overall game. The only positive is that it would stop referees penalizing him for chelping at them, but if that's a reason then we'd be better off giving to James Graham, who also seems to have some leadership qualities.

An interesting statement. I presume you have seen Sam train, I presume you have seen him around the squad, or around the hotel. I presume you know what he adds to the brew? I certainly don't, but, I do know that some players, as with people in every walk of life, thrive on responsibility. Sam comes across as a bright lad, he knows his game, and he knows that he wants.
A captain at full back, someone who is watching the whole game and can make decisions based on that. I don't think that's beyond the realms of common sense.

His attitude has improved a lot, for me he has grown up immensely.

As for leadership qualities, can you define them for us?

Good call JP,it's the right time to step down.

Congratulations on a long representative career and being selfless enough to make entirely the right call.

I wonder whether Leeds had an idea this was coming when they offered him a two year deal?

Fantastic international captain capped off a great career with a good win. Whatever his failings of late, his achievements are to be respected. For him to prolong his Leeds days and develop the younger forwards, a good choice.

The right call. Played JP. Over his career leaves huge boots to fill.

Whilst Sinfield has been a great captain for the Rhinos I have doubts he should even be in the England team let alone captain them.
Sinfield is the Wayne Rooney of Rugby League. Does the job for his club but not that good for his country IMO of course

When we are old which, for some of us, will be sooner rather than later, we'll look back at stand-out players.
There will be one who went from gawky teenager, sent to Oz with no mentoring and virtually written-off and forgotten by his coach, who stuck at it, got better and better and proved his coach wrong by always giving it all that he had and eventually became a hugely respected player in both hemispheres.

No white flag indeed, JP, and it's not all over yet.

A thorough professional who actually speaks in complete grammatical sentences.