Not a bad analysis, although I personally wouldnt play either Gilmour or Tomkins. Ones well past it, the others not quite there imo
Agree with you totally on Welham, Briscoe and Fox. Briscoe for me looks a phenominal talent but Fox deserves a shot, he's been thereabouts for a couple of years.



Because the talent in those teams is foreign, that wasnt hard to work out was it.



hmm he's only 21, huge and kept Vinnie Anderson out of Warringtons first team pretty much this whole season. Big career in front of the bloke

Maybe, and now the Aussies and Kiwis are definitely worried

A few reasons for you to muse over:
He's picking good players not good teams.
Warrington won the challenge cup, 50% of all the big trophies available.
Less overseas stars than some other teams.
The league position was hampered by an incredibly poor start to the season which even with just a couple of wins would have seen us comfortably in the play-offs.
Others such as Huddersfield and Hull KR consistently choked in the big games throughout the season, whereas Warrington's players seemed to thrive in that environment.
Warrington seem to have more young British talent than most other teams in Cooper, Bridge, Harrison, McCarthey, Blythe, Mitchell, Grix, Riley, Penney, Thompson etc all playing super league this year, and young British talent is ideal for a train-on squad.

But surely it is the players who make up the good teams, even with good overseas players the majority of each English team are English.



1/3 Big trophies, Leeds won the League Leaders shield, the hardest to obtain. To be fair, Warrington did deserve the win, but remember you only really needed to turn up 3 times, Hull KR, Wigan, Huddersfield to win.



Maybe, but you still had King, Monaghan, Andersons and Hicks featuring for a lot of your games, including the trophy win.



Same could be said for every team, with only a few more wins anyone in the top 4 or even 8 could have come first! The fact is they didn't, and therefore have not performed as well and as consistently as other players in the league, who are not even in the train on (which must be 40 players with these in).



Huddersfield knocked St.Helens out of the challenge cup this year, not many teams have done that in the past 10 years! Although Hull KR did choke this year, but that is through a lack of experience.



This is true with all teams, not just Warrington. Wigan, St.Helens, Bradford and Huddersfield can all claim a better reserve side than Warrington, and we haven't seen many other young players come through and get picked, and I doubt we will see players like Mossop and Flanagan of Wigan get in because they ask, like Warrington's can it seems.

To answer a few of your points.

The coach can only pick specific players who have performed well, he couldn't just pick players in proportion of where the teams finish in the league as this wouldn't be the best team. In Aus/NZ, this argument would leave out players like Thurston and Marshall, who didn't make the play-offs but are the best players for each of their international teams.
The league leader's shield isn't a big trophy and very few people could remember who had won it for each of the last 5 years as the grand final is the be all and end all of the league.
Huddersfield were consistently poor in big games such as in the challenge cup final and both their play-off games, and other games that were hyped such as on Sky against Leeds at Galpharm. They played well in the semi albeit against a weakened Saints team. The majority of Giant's English players are honest workmanlike players like Wild, Mason, Jackson etc who perform consistently over the season but are not capable of big game performances to the same degree as class players like O'Loughlin, Morley, Burgess etc who played for teams who finished lower in the league.

I agree with your point about consistency over the season, and am not trying to argue Warrington are actually the best team in the league. The reason I feel it is more appropriate to discount Warrington's early form (5 straight losses) is that these were achieved under James Lowes and as soon as Smith was appointed the team was much better. Other teams had peaks in form but never such a clearcut change as this. The performance of Warrington in the rest of the season after Lowes was sacked, (particularly in the big challenge cup games) suggests that there are quality players in the team.
There is also the most important point to use your example which is that Harrison and Bridge are better than Mossop and Flanaghan at the moment, have had much better seasons and are more suitable to play for England in the short term.

Said it before, say it again.
Harrison kept V. Andersons spot pretty much the whole season and ask a warry fan who they'd rather have from L. Anderson or Harrison.
Harrison every single time. The only back row forward at the club who's better is probably Westwood and thats only because his engine is better. Harrison being young tires and is best spelled

1) paul wellens
2) tom briscoe
3) martin gleeson
4) michael shenton
5) ryan hall
6) danny mcguire
7) rob burrow


adrian morley
9) james roby
10) jamie peacock
11) sam burgess
12) garreth ellis
13) sean o'loughlin

14) james graham
15) jon wilkin
16) leon pryce
17) ben westwood

1icon_cool.gif peter fox
19) ritchie myler
20) louis mccarthy scarsbrook
21) scott moore
22) lee gilmour
23) jamie langley
24) eorl crabtree

Now including Chris Bridge and Ben Harrison.

1 S. Briscoe
2 Fox
3 Sykes
4 Shenton
5 T. Briscoe
6 Ratchford
7 Myler

8 Morley
9 Moore
10 Crabtree
11 Ellis
12 Westwood
13 Burgess

14 Higham
15 Tickle
16 McCarthy Scarsbrook
17 Carvell

18 Bridge
19 Clubb
20 Harrison

Best 17 I've seen so far exc ept my own.
Although I'd have L Pryce on the right wing and swap Graham and Morley around. Also drop Wilkin for Gilmour.

Are you sure you don't want us to take a hammering? Not enough experience in that team, R Kid.

Thats just with the players that have been called up so far R Kid.

No drama's R Kid.

Sweet R Kid.

Eastmond at centre?

It's a possibility

Hope not, he's a half back, so if he plays it's in the halves.

Plus I reckon the Aussies would muder him in the air from kicks, with Folau, Hodges, Inglis or Hayne.

I'll plump for:

1 Shaun Briscoe
2 Ryan Hall
3 Martin Gleeson
4 Kyle Eastmond
5 Leon Pryce
6 Danny McGuire
7 Sam Tomkins
8 James Graham
9 Scott Moore
10 Jamie Peacock (C)
11 Sean O'Loughlin
12 Gareth Ellis
13 Kevin Sinfield (K)

14 Sam Burgess
15 Gareth Carvell
16 Adrian Morley
17 James Roby

I'm loathe to pick Sinfield because I don't think much of him as a general player, but we really are short on kicking options without him so I suppose he may be a neccessary evil, hopefully having the familiar Leeds combo of McGuire and Burrow in the halves might help him play a bit better.

I think the Eastmond and Pryce combo might work pretty well, if they go to the air Pryce is a tall bloke so he should fair reasonably well, plus Eastmond might be able to trouble them when we attack, making room for Pryce who is strong and fast. I still think we'll get battered like

I'd go with :


Briscoe
Hall
Atkins
Eastmond
Fox
McGuire
Myler
Graham
Moore
Peacock
Ellis
Wild
O'Loughlin

Morley
Burgess
Roby
Westwood

LMS
Tomkins
Wilkin
Gilmour
Crabtree
Carvell

In my opinion this is the team that should be playing for England!

1. S Briscoe - HKR
2. R Atkins - Wakefield (T Briscoe - Hull)
3. M Shenton - Castleford
4. M Gleeson - Wigan
5. R Hall - Leeds
6. L Pryce - Sts
7. D Brough - Wakefield
8. A Morley - Warrington
9. M Diskin - Leeds
10. J Peacock - Leeds
11. G Ellis - West Tigers
12. S Burgess - Bradford
13. S O'Loughlin - Wigan

14. J Roby - Sts
15. E Crabtree - Huddersfield
16. G Carvel - Warrington
17. J Graham - Sts

Unfortunately we won't get to see this side complete, I know we've lost a couple of players through injury (Atkins) but there have also been a number of omissions from the train on squad which just baffle me.

I can't believe that where going to select Rob Burrow again but the only alternative seems to be Richie Myler who won't have played a competitive game for about 3 1/2 months.

Only grumble i'd have with that would be 3 props on the bench, plus Graham is best used starting, not for impact.

I'd agree with most of that, but would play moore instead of diskin as he hasnt been as good as moore this season.

It was a finely balanced decision between Scott Moore and Matt Diskin, what swayed me toward Diskin was his quiet achievements in the shadow of Danny Buderus and his big game experience. Scott Moore started the season in exceptional form but then began to wane and actually lost his starting place at Huddersfield even before his antics in London with Mickey Rourke.

I've gone for three prop forwards on the bench because that's where we can win the games. By any stretch of the imagination we are not going to compete with Australia's three-quarter line and full-back.

Despite the delusional rantings of certain posters, England do have potentially the best pack of forwards in the world and that is where we can win games.

I would play such a ferocious forward game for the full 80 minutes that neither Australia or New Zealand would cope. Gaining such ascendancy in the pack will deny Australia's halfbacks the platform from which to utilise their three-quarter line.

What we must have then is a halfback pairing that contain a number of things:
A scrum-half who can boss the English pack and dictate play, who has the highest quality kicking game available and who does not need to be hidden out wide in the defensive line finally someone who will not be intimidated or daunted by the opposition.
Place the halfback next to a running stand-off who is used to playing alongside a dominant scrum-half.

Let our three-quarter line be defensively solid yet capable of taking advantage of the opportunities arise.

A solid full-back who returns the ball well and supports the ball carrier when breaks are made.

I'd send out my forwards warning them that should they submit to any tackle or begin to lose ferocity in defence they will be replaced.

It might not be sexy and at times I would ensure it became brutal!

eusa_clap.gif

If there are any tactics that might give us a slight chance to beat the Aussies, they are some of them.

We have State Of Origin.

We play Trans Tasman Tests.

Both our nations players compete in the most brutal 6 month sporting competition on the planet bar none.


You think you can bash these people out of a game?



Try it....

I think England can exercise such dominance in the pack so as to render Australia's halfback combination impotent!

No one is talking about illegal tactics, just the old truism that halfbacks can't play behind a beaten pack.

If Australias a halfbacks can't play than the three-quarter line gets starved of quality possession and field position.

Maybe it will work or maybe it won't!