Both England & England Knights performance Squads have been announced. They are.

England Elite Performance Squad.

Luke Gale, Mike McMeeken (Castleford), Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield), Scott Taylor (Hull FC), Ryan Hall, Stevie Ward, Kallum Watkins (Leeds), Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival, James Roby, Alex Walmsley (St Helens), Tom Johnstone (Wakefield), Kevin Brown, Daryl Clark, Ben Currie, Chris Hill, Stefan Ratchford (Warrington), John Bateman,Sean O'Loughlin, George Williams (Wigan).

Good to see Tom Johnstone in after some decent performance's.

England Knights Performance Squad.

Greg Minikan, Jake Trueman (Castleford), Kruise Leeming (Huddersfield), Josh Bowden, Jake Connor, Dean Hadley, Masimbaashe Matongo (Hull FC), Chris Atkin (Hull KR), Liam Sutcliffe, Jack Walker (Leeds), James Cunningham (London Broncos), Joe Burgess, Tom Davies, Oliver Gildart, Sam Powell, Ryan Sutton (Wigan), Niall Evalds (Salford), Danny Richardson, Luke Thompson (St Helens), Reece Lyne (Wakefield), Jack Hughes (Warrington), Tom Gilmore, Danny Walker, Matt Whitley (Widnes).

Though no fixtures for the Knights have been formally announced . But there are talks for at least 2 games (maybe a 5 nations type competition hopefully). They will be coached by Paul Anderson.
On a side note it's good to see the Knights back. Enjoyed watching them at times, and also makes sense to me.

France would be ideal opposition for the Knights.

You sound like Jean

More than one centre?

Kallum Watkins, Mark Percival, Liam Sutcliffe, Jake Connor, Oliver Gildart, Reece Lyne

I dislike the petulant side of Sam Tomkins, but the fact Kevin Brown is selected ahead of him is strange.
I also think Tomkins is a better full back than either Lomax or Ratchford.
Can’t see what Makinson offers either to be honest when there is Hall, McGillvary and Johnstone in the squad. If we need four wingers, I’m not sure how Makinson deserves a spot over Eden either.
Joe Wardle has had limited game-time at Cas due to injury, but for me he did more in the twenty minutes he played than McMeekan has done so far this year. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him added to the squad once he gets some game time behind him.

maybe bennett made his mind up about tomkins when he was playing in the nrl. i sat next to a souths fan at the ANZ double header and he said something along the lines of bennett will judge a player pretty quickly and then you're either a bennett type player or you're out

Bennet must be a secret Warrington fan, how the hell do Brown, Clark, Ratchford and Hughes get in.

Clark I agree with, awesome on his day. The rest....pffftt

Some interesting choices in the development squad, some really experienced players and then some players who had hardly played a game, players like Trueman, Atkins and Matongo must have about 20 appearances between them.

On Warrington I like Ratchford, very good player, not sure FB is his best position though, not sure which position is best for him.

Clarke is a very good as well.

Ratchford has great utility value in the squad but, there are better players in every position that he can cover and he was a little exposed at international level last season
Every club side needs someone like him but, at International level, i'm not sure hes good enough.

The boy blunder's failed venture into the NRL was his downfall, he was well and truly found lacking. I doubt any Aussie coaching England would select him as he is devoid of bottle.

I`d like to see England play the knights team.

Yes why not then pick the best players for the England team to play New Zealand

There must be 20 better wingers in SL than eden

Name the 20 then.

Who would have thought something so simple could be so righticon_smile.gif

Totally agree! Let’s see whose hungry for it

Not all available for England though.

Devoid of bottle lol whatever

Regards

King James

4 at wigan, 2 at saints, 2 at leeds, 2 at Hull, 2 at warrington, 2 at wakefield, 2 at les cats, 1 at salford, 1 at hudds, 2 at widnes and none at hull kr obviously.

eden was rubbish at hull kerm rubbish down under then drops lucky and gets on the prolific left edge of cas where even my granny would score 20 tries a season

Only about 16 of them eligible for England I guess. wigan have 4 English wingers better than eden

I think BJB is unlucky not to be in. I think he's better than Makinson.

Possible French team to play England Knights:

Morgan Escare (Wigan)

Fouad Yaha (Catalans), Anthony Gigot (Catalans), Bastien Ader (Toulouse), Paul Marcon (Toulouse)

Theodore Fages (St. Helens)
William Barthau (Toulouse)

Jason Baitieri (Catalans)
Benjamin Garcia (Catalans), Benjamin Jullien (Catalans)
Remy Casty (Catalans), Eloi Pelissier (Lezignan), Julien Bousquet (Catalans)

Interchange: Mickael Simon (Catalans), Antoni Maria (Catalans), Thibault Margalet (Catalans), Lucas Albert (Catalans).


Reserves: Stanislas Robin (Toulouse), Alrix da Costa (Catalans), Vincent Duport (Catalans), Bastien Canet (Toulouse), Gavin Marguerite (Toulouse)


Some people may want to argue "how can a team that is mostly Catalans players compete with a Knights team that is drawn from more successful Super League teams?"

Part of the answer is that the team could compete if the French Federation chooses a France national team coach who is better than Steve McNamara. Another part of the answer lies in the selection of the French halves from St. Helens and Toulouse, each of whom are in better form than the first choice halves of the Catalans.

Nothing good would come of playing a reserve team against a first team.

Australia A and New Zealand A would be ideal. Or the Maori or Aboriginals.