Westwood wasn't our best player, James Graham was, although he had a decent game.

Tomkins
Goulding
Atkins
Shenton
Goulding
Brown
Robinson
Graham
Roby
Fielden
Westwood
Ellis
O'Loughlin

Burgess
Crabtree
Griffin
Harrison.

Thats what i'd go for. A massive bench, with Burgess and Harrison able to cover anywhere in the pack except hooker, with Crabtree and Griffin rotating at prop. Also, if injuries occur to the backs, then the likes of Ellis or O'Loughlin can slot in if needs be. Joel Tomkins was rubbish when he come on, IMO, and doesn't deserve to be picked on the bench.

We should be allowed to select 24 players with unlimited interchanges.

He looked alot more of a threat in the , id go with for next week

Tomkins
Briscoe
Widdop
Shenton
Goulding
O'Loughlin
Robinson
Fielden
Roby
Graham
Westwood
Ellis
Burgess

Lunt
Harrison
Griffin
Crabtree

he's a reserve grader ffs, what's he doing in an England shirt?

Because he's better than anything else we have... Shows what problems we have. He would be in the first tea, of just about every superleague team

Would he though? We don't really know that until he's come and played over here or played regularly over there. The kids got talent but looks like he hasn't played first team a lot.

he hasn't, about 5 games in his entire career. Your right we do have problems!

He played well, he made a couple of mistakes but you have to expect that from such a young player. He threatened the defence and returned the ball well.

Given the alternatives he is the best option.

You have to remember that the aim is to have a team ready for the world cup in 2013. Players like Wellens and Briscoe will be too old then and are not good enough now. Given the other options Widdop was a good pick and had a promising game given his age and experience.

I agree Goulding was good but can he really play 2 positions at the same time?

Kris Inu had played 1 game of first grade when he made his debut IIRC.

Anyway FWIW I think Widdop looked totally out of his depth today. Im sure had we had a fully fit squad though the combonation would have been 1.Tomkins, 6. McGuire, 7.Eastmond anyway and Widdop wouldnt have had a look in.

and what has Inu done since?

I hear what your saying about 2013 but surely have him in the squad to get experience, play Briscoe who is safe at the back if offers little going forward and let the kid at least get some 1st grade experience before throwing him to the Lions (or in this case kiwis).

I don't know what a lot of you were expecting, but England have clearly upgraded in the fullback position in 2010.

Correct they have, in terms of missed tackles and errors he's upgraded these stats tenfold. Just a shame he's upgraded them the wrong way

I think the real problem England face is that their best halves - Tomkins and Eastmond - play at their best at FB and Centre. If you had your first choice squad available I would think that Tompkins would replace Widdop, but who would be in the halves? If you go with your best halfback pairing, then you have to go with Widdop.
As a neutral I don't think Widdop was any worse than any of the other players you had in the squad, sure he needs to make a 10% improvement if you want to win an international, but then again so does the rest of your squad.
(But that's not that bad, all the French players need to improve by 50% to be competitive)

Because an awful lot of our squad would be reserve graders over there.

He offers nothing going forward, we're looking to win games not to lose by the lowest amount. Briscoe is an average SL full back, he's no where near international standard.. and I really like the guy.

If he didn't get injured, Richard Owen would have been the fullback imo.

Doesn't Cudjoe play fullback too? Apart from 1 drop Widdop didn't look that bad today anyway, certainly an improvement over Briscoe, Atkins was the biggest joke out there today.

Sorry but for me widdop was b.poor today as was atkins and ellis. We need more forward power next game, but with mcnamara as coach I don't expect anything more than that showing today!

Tomkins should be the England fullback. But the fact that Eastmond, Pryce, McGuire and Sinfield are all injured determines that he needs to be in the halves.

Agree with you about J Tomkins. Been dire this week and last. Drop him and pick Harrison.

Bring in Clubby. Let the big boy surprise a few people.

Tell you what Joel must really have rubbed some opposition fans up the wrong way this year especially a few bitter Saints fans looking at some of this posts.

Joel Tomkins - Ben Westwood

Hit ups 3 (22m) - 5 (34m)
Average 7.3 - 6.8
Offloads 1 - 1
Tackles 15 -17
Missed tackles 0 - 1
Errors 0 - 0
Penaltys conceded 0 - 1

Considering Joel wasnt on the field nearly aslong as Westwood who seems to be getting talked up on here as one of the only players to show up i think Joel's stats and performance stands up quite well tbf. Im not trying to put Westwood down as i thought he played well im just using him as an example. Can someone give me a logical explaination on why J.Tomkins is getting dogged ? Or is it a simple case that he ruffled a few two many feathers this year on his way to getting his winners medal.

I'd like to ask people what Joel did wrong?

Got about 30 mins. was strong in D and had a massive hand in our second try.

Surprise people by how shocking he is at tackling ? Worst in superleague aint he ?

I was waiting for a Wiganer to come up with this. It has nothing to do with playing for Wigan what so ever, i just didn't notice him do anything. The stats do look fine, but stats don't always tell the full story but frm what i watched, he didn't have any impact and to be honest, i didn't notice him on the field. Also, Tomkins came on when we were starting to play reasonably well, so we were on the front foot for a majority of when he was on the field.

Tomkins has shown this season he is a very good player with a lot of potential, first half of the season especially. However, i wasn't impressed with him today, and it has nothing to do with being bitter, or being a Saints fan.