IMO it's a very very poor backline. It's worst I've ever seen for a GB or England side.

The centre postion is going to be big problem for England over the next few years.

Lee smith has had good season and should be centre IMO if the team is being picked on form which I believe tony smith has said. Lee smith was poor on Saturday which could happen to any player as even the best players have shockers.

If I was in smith shoes I would have picked senior and gleeson as my centres because I think they are best all round English centres.

I would have also played pryce on the wing.

We can't really. Smith would have been the first choice if he wasn't going to union. Could Gleeson have done a job? I've seen nothing from him to suggest he can and also Smith shipped him out of Warrington which also suggests he doesn't rate him or regards his inclusion as being detrimental to the squad. Not an unreasonable assumption given he was shipped out of Saints too.

Didn't gleeson captain England while tony smith was in charge?

Its already been mentioned, I would have had Leon Pyrce at centre and Ellis the other one, two big centres.

Can,t understand Tony Smiths selection policy, particularly Lee Smith one more game and ceases to be a rugby league player, what long term objective is that.

Smith has selcted Chris Bridge into the squad so why doesn't he use him at centre?
Smith and McGuire got found out defensivly but not as much as Peacock who was too far inside, then too slow to cover where he should have been.
Smith and McGuire were left stranded by Peacock's absence.
Next week we need two backrowers who are big enough and fast enough to do the job. Ellis was great, so who should the other backrower be who can provide that defensive cover that's needed?
Find a good one and put Bridge at centre with Fox on the wing.
Bridge can beat a man and Fox is a mile faster than anything the Kiwis have.

Bridge is Lee Smith but bigger and probably quicker.
I'd have started him there tbh

Im sure if Ryan Atkins was fit he would have been in squad and would have played ahead of Shenton.

dont quite understand why shenton is coming in for some flak,tbh he`s done little wrong, defencively he`s been solid whilst in attack he has had no service whatsoever from the halves.

the problem is england dont have a newlove or a senior which we have had for the past 15 years who can bust a tackle and im not sure where we are going to get one from in the near future and ryan atkins isnt the answer.

Only if tony smith was a fool, shenton and hall combined to keep the aussies scoreless down that side, not that many english centre-wing combinations can say that agains the aussies in recent times. Not that atkins is a bad centre, i would have put him there ahead of smith (who as the leeds fans will tell you has never been a centre and has only been filling in for leeds).

Im a Cas fan, i think Shenton is a very good player with many years ahead of him, i love to see Cas players involved in international rugby, but i do believe that Atkins would have been in ahead of him, this judgement not being based on Shentons 4 nations form. And i think that Shenton and Atkins are the England centres for years to come taking over from Gleeson and Senior, especially with Smith departing to union.

thats a pretty depressing thought to be honest

The only other worth a shout would be Bridge, and also Welham and Lawrence could be future candidates.

How does this square with you being unconcerned at Leeds' importing of overseas trained players increasing to seven for the 2010 season set against the RFL's limit of six?

Bridge could turn out to be a class centre at domestic level. You'll see next year, although he doesn't really have an outstanding quality such as electric pace or sheer brute size though, the best aspect of his game is his ability to step and get his winger away, certainly never going to be an inglis

Depends on your point of view, both those players had the talent but i think both lacked commitment to england/gb (simply my opinion of course) when it came to england/gb, and never put as much heart and soul as say mcdermott, radlinski, peacock, anderson etc.

I'm happy to see two players who seem more commited to representing their country, and will cheer them on whenever they represent my country.

Prior to the match I advocated Smith's inclusion at centre. He's quick, adaptable and has the knack of playing well in big matches. I can't think of too many SL players who tick the same boxes.

That said, his performance was uninspiring. In defence he was at best a speed bump and he won't have caused Australian nightmares with ball in hand, either.

Needs to lift his game. Fast.

The ONLY reason Shenton gets stick on here is because he plays for Cas and it's pathetic, this is a player who was the top scoring centre in the league last year and made 27 tackles against the Aussies last week, yet some people are still saying he isn't good enough to play for England when over the last 2 years he's outplayed every centre he's played with the exception of probably 2 games (Saints & Leeds away this year). If he played for Leeds or Saints people would be praising him as the best centre in the league etc etc.

Shenton did nothing wrong. But he was hardly a danger to the Australians in attack. The fact that they favour the left hand side going forward was his good fortune. The jury's out on whether he'd cope under the same pressure that Smith faced.

He's worth a punt for a few games – but let's not go bananas over him yet.

I'm not suggesting that we play him at centre but when he came on Ben Westwood did a great job in shutting down Australias left side attack.

Next season we will have Senior, Coady, Watkins and an Aussie as our cover for the centre position. 3 out of 4. Not as good as 4 out of 4 that we provided Smith to choose from this year but still better than many other clubs.

Exactly. People are bandying a few names around now but during the course of the season none of them have played as well as Smith. As you and a couple of other honest posters have said he earned his place on form.

Smith played badly at the weekend, that is undeniable. However, I dare anyone hand on heart to say they would've selected any of the names mention on here ahead of him prior to Saturday's game.

We simply do not have the talent pool. I would be delighted if we had produced a Greg Inglis at Bradford, St Helens, Hull or anywhere else so Smith could be left out of the side and shunted off to cash his cheque from union. But we don't and until clubs stop relying on very average antipodeans to fill the skill positions nothing will change.

You named two potential centres there. One retired and Gilmour finished the season in the back row.

I am not getting into an argument about who did and deserve selection. I am simply pointing out there were [ino[/i decent centres to select. I am trying to focus the attention on why that is. Very few posters have answered the original question on the thread. Who played centre for your team?

Direct your annoyance at Lee Smith and Tony Smith by all means. By remove those two from the England set up and you're left with Steve Mcnamara coaching us and Chris Bridge, Paul Sykes, Michael Shenton and Kyle Eatsmond all vying to out play Inglis and Hodges.

How did he make 27 tackles then?

FFS getting praise for Shenton is like getting blood from a stone. The guy made 27 tackles - was he running to the opposite side of the pitch to make them or something?



You obviously missed the number of sets in the first half where the Aussies just drove at our left hand defence (Tompkins-Shenton-Hall), got absolutely nowhere, so passed it left and walked through the batwing doors provided by Smith and Maguire

His opposite number made 9 tackles.