Not for me thanks. You should only play for England if you're born here. Thoughts?

Born here or spent a significant part of your life here AND not played for another nation.

Will be interesting to see who he picks for the back 5 this year. Our contingent of Hall, Briscoe, Hardaker and Watkins have been poor and or injured. Joe Burgess isn't getting games in Aus. Charnley is scoring and making good metres but shouldn't be considered because he's going to RU next year. Jack Reed seems to always be injured come end of the year. Shenton missed all year and Saints' lot of Makinson and Percival suffering with injuries too. Wouldn't pick Bateman at centre regardless of his off field issues.

Only McGillivery has scored tries and made metres in struggling team. If Bennett was going to go down the bringing in 'foreign' players route then the likes of Solomona and Justin Carney will have spent enough time in England wouldn't they?

Edit - forget about Man-Friday, so at the moment I'd go like this with the centres still undecided

1 - Tomkins
2 - McGillivery
3 -
4 -
5 - Manfredi

I wouldn't be averse to Hodkinson but the Morris twins have both played for Oz recently so I can't see how they'd be eligible despite both being fantastic players.

source?

Hodkinson's dad is English and wasn't it only his NSW selection he was worried about losing as to the reason he hadn't decided to play for England?

Morris twins no ta

At the moment I'd be tempted to go with something like this:

1. Tomkins
2. Broughton
3. Watkins
4. Currie
5. McGilvary
6. Gale
7. Sneyd
8. Graham
9. Hodgson
10. Hill
11. Burgess, S
12. Bateman
13. O'Loughlin

14. Clark
15. Burgess, G
16. Burgess, T
17. Westerman

Now I know Watkins hasn't been great this year so far but I don't think we can leave out such an athlete as him, especially as we're struggling a bit with regards to top centres.
I also personally wouldn't have O'Loughlin in the team, I'd play Westerman at 13 and bring either Cooper or Whitehead on to the bench, but if O'Loughlin is captain then he has to play.

The more Aussies in the side the better our chances.

The more NRL players in our side the better our chances.

Wayne Bennett knows this and should select players accordingly.

Refugees welcome!

If I was to pick a England squad now with everyone fit I'd go with

Shaul
Mcgilvery
Watkins
Sarginson
Broughton
Widdop
Gale
Hill
Hodgson
Graham
Bateman
Whitehead
S.Burgess

Subs
Houghton
T.Burgess
Cooper
Ferres


I think most of that team have been I'm good for most of the season and players who haven't been too consistent like Watkins and Burgess are class and can do something special for your team.

Watkins... Jeezus wept!

Every other country in the world (in all sports) picks the best available eligible team, regardless of place of birth. Maybe nobody has told Wayne Bennett some backward thinking flat earth brigade find it unacceptable for England rugby league to do the same.

This

The last thing RL in this country needs is England playing Australia live on the BBC to be followed by post-match interviews with England players who have Australian accents.
It would further entrench RL's status in this country as a small sport.

The sport needs an England team genuinely represented by English players if we want the England team to be taken seriously by the rest of the country.

The same goes for every other nation in RL.

Right well based on the new irfl rules we can have Cherry evens as well, I bet if you look hard enough we can have have any aussie we want that doesn't get into the Kangaroos team

In fact lets just rename England Australia B shall we?

Quote ="Him"The last thing RL in this country needs is England playing Australia live on the BBC to be followed by post-match interviews with England players who have Australian accents. It would further entrench RL's status in this country as a small sport. The sport needs an England team genuinely represented by English players if we want the England team to be taken seriously by the rest of the country. The same goes for every other nation in RL.'" Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/

Quote ="Him"The last thing RL in this country needs is England playing Australia live on the BBC to be followed by post-match interviews with England players who have Australian accents. It would further entrench RL's status in this country as a small sport. The sport needs an England team genuinely represented by English players if we want the England team to be taken seriously by the rest of the country. The same goes for every other nation in RL.'" Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/

Not every sport though allows players to represent different countries at international level. Just because our eligibility rules are different doesn't mean we should use them.

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Im sure everyone remembers the passion Brad Barrit showed for the England shirt right?

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Im sure everyone remembers the passion Brad Barrit showed for the England shirt right?

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Rugby Union isn't in the position RL is in. It doesn't need to increase its profile in this country. It doesn't need to dramatically increase revenues and sponsorship. It doesn't need to be taken seriously by the establishment including big business and the media. International Rugby Union is light years ahead of International RL in terms of credibility. We have little, they have loads.

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Rugby Union isn't in the position RL is in. It doesn't need to increase its profile in this country. It doesn't need to dramatically increase revenues and sponsorship. It doesn't need to be taken seriously by the establishment including big business and the media. International Rugby Union is light years ahead of International RL in terms of credibility. We have little, they have loads.

I don't reckon I'm capable of forming an emotional attachment to an austro-england team. If a win means that much to some then, sure, go for it. I'll not pay to watch it though. Or even watch it, I suspect.

Them having an Aussie accent doesn't bother me, Cuthbertson for example should've been picked last year. But I think selecting someone who has not only played for Australia but played and scored against England in a 4 Nations Final would be ridiculous.

Quote ="leedsnsouths" Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Im sure everyone remembers the passion Brad Barrit showed for the England shirt right?'" Or Ben Te'O, Dylan Hartley, Tuilagi, the Vunipolas, Yarde, Harrison, Clifford from the more recent England RU squads.... That's at least 8 players in the squad who were not born and raised in England... Many with foreign accents... I don't particularly like it, but that's modern day sport - and a reflection really of modern day life. The Aussie and Kiwi RL teams do it, we've previously done it, so basically, we might as well join them, or be left further behind.... Pick the best players who are available and committed to the cause...

Quote ="leedsnsouths" Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Is Rugby Union now seen as a small sport or was it barely mentioned at the 2015 World Cup? www.americasrugbynews.com/2015/0 ... -rwc-2015/'" Im sure everyone remembers the passion Brad Barrit showed for the England shirt right?'" Or Ben Te'O, Dylan Hartley, Tuilagi, the Vunipolas, Yarde, Harrison, Clifford from the more recent England RU squads.... That's at least 8 players in the squad who were not born and raised in England... Many with foreign accents... I don't particularly like it, but that's modern day sport - and a reflection really of modern day life. The Aussie and Kiwi RL teams do it, we've previously done it, so basically, we might as well join them, or be left further behind.... Pick the best players who are available and committed to the cause...

This is a tricky one. When England have played the likes of Reed & Heighington I have been, on the whole, supportive of them in their efforts for their "mother nation" as they were one or two "Aussie speakers" in a squad of more obvious English nationals.

What if the entire squad was made up of Reed's & Heighington's? Would English RL fans feel an affinity to the team & support in good numbers (as they generally do now)? I, for one, would most definitely not.

So, should we have a quota of non-English-born players?

But presumably peoples Australian intolerance threshold would kick in at different points so I'm not sure that a quota is the answer. That said, if we can't provide any kind of a challenge with only the odd aussie plugging the odd gap we might as well not f*****g bother.

Agreed

Don't really care about England RU and eligibility rules, but for me if you aren't born in England you can't play for England. What is the point of international rugby / sport? And if you've already played for another nation, how on earth can you play for a different nation?