The Cook Islands are apparently going to select Gelling for their test with PNG, not sure if there are any other PNG/CI players in SL?

Whitehead is way ahead of any you mentioned. This season he is one of the standout second rowers in the NRL if not the best. On top of that his ball handling skills are outstanding.

Paul Aiton?

Whitehead is quality. SOL is good if fit and captain so likely a sure thing at 13. That leaves one back row spot open, depending on where Sam Burgess plays. Plus maybe another spot or even two on the bench. Farrell should be in there imo.

I also agree with regards to Aussie selections. I don't really care what other sports do or what the rules are in terms of heritage, it isn't really right. (I can stomach it a bit more if a player hasn't had caps etc for someone else and has always committed and repped that country, (thinking Carney and Craig Kopczack as good examples). If I'm perfectly honest I'm against the likes of Currie and in the past Brough playing for England after being capped by Ireland and Scotland respectively.

All this proud Englishman talk is from the dark ages. If Australian born players wants to represent the country of his parents or vice versa then what's the problem?

If they come out and say they are totally committed and are ready​ to give up origin selection and future Australian cap then i am sorry but thats enough commitment.

If players are seeing it as a stop gap and would go back to Australia in a heartbeat then yeah that's a problem.

It wasn't enough commitment for McQueen when he was approached a few years ago, but turned it down because he wanted to play Origin though was it?! And, yes, I am a proud Englishman. If that makes me 'from the dark ages', thats your opinion, of which you are entitled to. The same as I am entitled to mine. Plus, do you really think that he would give England a thought if he was good enough to be selected for Australia? I think not. Again, my opinion.

I agree. Its outrageous that true-blue English players get overlooked in favour of Johnny Foreigner.. Yours sincerely,

Ben Te'O, Shontayne Hape, Lesley Vainakolo, Henry Paul, Allan Lamb, Robin Smith, Graeme Hick, Kevin Pietersen.

All you Wigan fans need to calm down re the Farrell comments. Watch the last game he played over here vs Aus - he was mullered every time he got the ball, and lost the ball in contact several times.

That's not to say he wouldn't be better than others, but in any event what I was arguing is that you can't pick more than one lightweight forward or we'll just get steamrollered.

I have to agree with you, i have watched most of Canberra games this year, they are great to watch. The right edge can be devastating at times, and Whitehead is a big part of that. Also noticed because he runs such good lines and has good feet he attracts so many head shot penalties. Must be earning 2 an average of 2/3 a game at the minute which can be quite a valuable trait to have for a side.

That's what they are doing though. McQueen and Heighinton aren't good enough for Australia. And that's even more annoying - when the Aussies being selected aren't even an improvement.

And this talk of other sports do it, if the other sports jumped off a cliff, should RL do so as well?

McQueen is an improvement, and he isn't over the hill, he is in his prime. Does anyone on here know him personally to say that he wouldn't have any pride in playing for England or are people just assuming he wouldn't as he at one point harboured ambition of playing Origin?

And in terms of other sports; RL is behind the vast majority of sports so we should definitely look to other more successful sports for guidance.

He put on Instagram a few times about Australia bashing/killing "Poms" at Cricket

Haha sounds about right! I did read that his dad shed a tear when he told him he was going to represent England. I'm just trying to stay positive to be honest, as a Bradford fan I've got enough to worry about without factoring in England's selection policy

lol

Whitehead is probably the best second rower in the NRL at the moment and youd pick some scrawny lad who consistently gets mullered everytime he plays against the aussies?

Regards

King James

'Everytime he plays against the Aussies'

You make it sound like he's played against them numerous times. Whitehead played against them last year at the Olympic Stadium and he was poor so we can all twist arguments the way we want to. They're both good players but as ever the NRL smoke blowers will big people up as being super human because they're in that comp whilst forgetting where they came from.

Farrell has been excellent in three club games against Aussie teams in the last three years, being used in the right way and playing to his strengths. He's also been consistently one of if not the best second rower in this league for the past 3 or 4 seasons. If Whitehead/Hodgson and co are capable of tearing up the NRL then there's every chance Farrell could.

All the best

NK

I don't disagree entirely. I would argue that if Farrell came to the NRL he'd need to bulk up a lot though.

Whitehead has got better since the start of last season. He's used effectively as an inside centre by the Raiders, which works very well for them. For England we'd probably need him to play closer to the middle and make some of the workhorse runs he doesn't need to for the Raiders.

You can't ignore the pure physicality issue when looking at SL players. For Australia, Cordner is likely to be their smallest forward. He's probably 10 kg heavier than Farrell and doesn't mind the tough stuff at all. There's simply no place for second rowers who just want to run out wide and not mix it with the biggest oponents.

It's sort of been turned in to a debate of Farrell vs Whitehead and that wasn't my intention at all. I rate both players and my point is that I just feel superleague deserves a little more respect.

There seems to be this mindset now of 'x player is playing well in the Superleague' but then 'y player is playing well in the NRL' so therefore the NRL player will always be the one who's selected and I think that's wrong.

As for wide runners not mixing it with big forwards, I've yet to see Farrell shy away from anything in that regard. I'd go back to his immense fitness levels and the intensity he can play at full the full 80 minutes as an advantage he's got over a lot of his bigger opponents in superleague. If he can transfer that advantage to elite level matches against Australia's best forwards is clearly another matter but we're not going to find out if he capable by playing him in short bursts and expecting an impact game (as seems to have been the case for him so far against Oz and NZ).

On the plus side I'm glad he's available for Wigan.

Leeson Ah Mau (St George Illawarra)
John Asiata (North Queensland)
Fa'amanu Brown (Cronulla)
Herman Ese’ese (Brisbane)
Sam Kasiano (Canterbury-Bankstown)
Tim Lafai (St George Illawarra)
Joey Leilua (Canberra)
Isaac Liu (Sydney Roosters)
Josh McGuire (Brisbane)
Peter Mata’utia (Newcastle)
Sione Mata’utia (Newcastle)
Suaia Matagi (Parramatta)
Anthony Milford (Brisbane)
David Nofoaluma (Wests Tigers)
Kaysa Pritchard (Parramatta)
Sauaso Sue (Wests Tigers)
Antonio Winterstein (North Queensland

Something like:

1 - Nofoaluma
2 - Winterstein
3 - Lafai
4 - Leilua
5 - P Mat'autia
6 - Milford
7 - Asiata
8 - Ese'ese
9 - Pritchard
10 - Liu
11 S Mata'autia
12 - Sue
13 - McGuire

14 - Ah Mau
15 - Kasiano
16 - Matagi
17 - Brown

It's very strong. A very good test for England. How many England players would make that 13?

England have the edge in the front row but across the field they'll be very competitive. I think Samoa may win - with the short turnaround for England from flying over this week - to be honest.

It looks a strong team and that's just what we need. I'd love to think in the future we could get some regular tests with Samoa, Tonga, Fiji etc going which would benefit both parties and the game in general.

Kevin Brown comes in to replace the injured George Williams.

Wow

Just got a British Lions RU tour merchandise leaflet with an online order.

And they have jerseys, polos, shorts, hoodies, bags , caps , pens you name it.

Yet the RFL can't muster up even selling the current jersey for the upcoming rep game. It really is shameful.

Well that highlights the problems we've got at halfback.

Doesn't it. If he's the best replacement we have then we are in trouble