Mmmm, he definately had a couple when he bashed it in and impressed me. Obviously he had some that went the other that didn't stick in my mind.

I'm not going to rewatch it to see which happened more!

Anyway, its safe to say Morley and Peacock won't be there for the world cup, so best look at who's going to replace them.

I like Crabtree when I've seen him at that level, although I think his form, like the rest of the Hudds players, crashed towards the end of the season. The young Burgesses may make some real strides between now and the world cup, also.

I'd like to think all 4 Burgess' will develop into potential international forwards. At the minute we have plenty of grafters but we lack forwards with the athleticism of the likes of Gallen, Scott, Watmough and Lewis.

Classic opinion of someone who only applauds players who make outstanding and obvious breaks. If you review the 4 nations, I would say sinfield will be comfortably top of the assist charts for England, I may be wrong but yet again the 8 points we scored against Australia on Saturday were a result of Sinfield. He is never going to make clear breaks or many tackle busts, but the defence and attack is both bossed by Sinfield who had to take control as nobody else can. It's all very well playing players who may make some breaks but if there is no set structure you will get nowhere, watch the game back and look at how he is constantly controlling the defensive line and pointing players into the correct positions. He was targeted as the Australians knew he is our main pivot, which totally restricted his game. To say he can't read the game is laughable, I would be willing to bet if we had played the likes of Widdop at SO we would have scored considerably less points partnered with Chase. As it stands Sinfield is the only player who can boss the team around the pitch. Many of our players however dynamic they may be such as Chase, Widdop and Tomkins, are very indivdual and do not often bring team mates into the game.

It won't matter who we have at HB if we don't improve our technique in the collusion.

Nope, someone who knows the difference between a very good SL player and a real world class player. If you took your club blinkers off you's see it yourself.

He does none of the things you claim he does at International level well enough, it's pure delusion on your part I'm afraid.

I will concede to you on one issue you raise, he is a world class pointer - if he played as well as he points we'd have a winner. Problem is I can point at things.

Why have the majority of the points scored in this years 4 nations come from a play of Sinfield then? How very apt of you to take that literally also, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you have played rugby to any sort of decent level it's a huge lift to have a player in the side who takes responsibility and keeps other players right, wither your refusing to acknowledge this I don't know.

Widdop for the Storm this season: Widdop (25 matches – 16 line-breaks, 16 try assists eight line-break assists and two tries).

Anybody got these stats for Sinfield/Chase?

Sinfield stats from sl.co.u

Games. 27
Tries. 1
Try assists. 22
Goals. 115
Tackle busts. 30
Clean breaks. 7
Offloads 37

What that proves I dunno.

I just thought it'd be interesting to see how these players actually performed during the season to warrant the calls for them to be played/not played.

Whilst Danny Brough proves not to be good enough to be classed as neither. Sinfield is a far superior player to Brough and has proved so for years

Sinfield doesnt need to prove himself better than Lockyer or prove himself a 'real world class player' he just needs to be the best we have available and he is.

Well going by stats chase would be way above windop in the pecking order.

Games. 25
Tries. 12
Try assists.27
Offloads 37
Metres. 2898
Tackle busts . 102


Clean breaks. 14

Even with him in his pomp, we still couldn't the Aussies in a series.

Like I said, he was the exception. It takes 17 exceptional players to beat the Aussies.

Proves nothing in terms of selection criteria IMO.
Rangi Chase for example, had good season stats but they were mainly achieved in the first half of the season when he was in blistering form. That disguises the reality that he wasn't in form at the tail-end of the season.

Sinfield doesn't just point - he creates and scores points


Sinfield had a hand in 62 out of England's 98 points in the tournament with 7 try assists + 1 try created from kick + 15 goals in 4 games.
He also averaged over 26 tackles per game - more than twice as many as any other half-back in the tournament.

If that's not doing well enough at international level I'm really not sure what is.

Comparing stats between Super League and the NRL is impossible because of the quality of the competitions, despite what Eddie says.

In Super League we have teams like Wakefield, Crusaders, Quins, and Salford down at the bottom of the table, while the NRL have Cronulla, Paramatta, Canberra and the Gold Coast, all of which would put 50 on the aforementioned Super League teams.

The quality of our competition isnt good enough, competetive enough, or "British" enough, and that is the bottom line of why we fail at international level, and has been for YEARS! The bottom club in the NRL (Gold Coast) finished with 12 (yes it was 16 really but 4 of those points were for 2 byes) points from 24 games, where the Crusaders only managed 8 from 27 games. This to me is just one example of how the NRL is more competitive. The fact Penrith finished 12th this year having done so well last year is another.

The only reason we are "improving" is because we have players heading over to (or already playing in) the NRL who then come on leaps and bounds, playing in a far superior competition against solid opposition week in week out.

Anybody got the stats for how often Sinfield stuffs up a kick? How fricking hard is it to kick a bomb 15 metres>?

Maybe I'm just a bit slow, but I am starting to wonder if all the Aussie posters on this site are complete nit-picking retards.
Having watched Sinfield all season I'm pretty sure that such stats, if they ever existed, (which I doubt they do for any player), would be pretty favourable for Sinfield.

How frickin easy is it to make your judgment on the basis of the one or two games you've seen him play?

Heh. JB got called an Aussie. Probably the most offensive thing you could say to him.

Sorry, Chief, he's one of yours.

Totally agree, which makes his inability to kick properly during important internationals even more vexatious.

Is Kev a bottler?

haha, I hold both passports so I guess I am as Aussie as Jack Reed is English!

and no I haven't seen him much this season but in the 3 games that I have seen at Int level his kicking was terrible. Maybe it was 3 off days?

What a load of old sh*te.

Wigan, Leeds and Saints supply the bulk of GB players yet you still manage to blame the three clubs who didn't supply any. This is the twisted logic peddled by SL apologists for years and carries no credibility at all.

Oddly the two British players who stood up best IMO were Ellis and especially Westwood and I wonder where they came from. Take a look at yourselves first.

It's nothing to do with the amount of games, quality of games or number of teams. It's far far simpler, we simply do not produce enough players with the bottle or desire to beat the Aussies and no amount of meddling with SL will change that. As a nation, as a sport and a people we have gone soft and simply can't match the belief and determination of the Aussies who are just better in every aspect.

We were like rabbits caught in the head lights on Sunday - it's absolutely pathetic and unforgivable when you consider nearly all those players have contested SL finals, CCup finals and previous Internationals.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND STOP BLAMING OTHER PEOPLE.

You've also got to take into account RL is THE sport in Australia and so they have got a far bigger talent pool to dip into

Sadly he isn't, he plays in a better team and is perhaps more professional but superior don't make me laugh. And when at International level has he ever proved it. Broughy has his faults but he's more skill in his big toe than Sinfield has in his whole body.

Like all Leeds fans you appear blinded to the reality that he can't up it to International level. Also your assertion that he is the best available is also flawed. I'd play Tomkins or Widdop at 6 before him - neither is a Cronk or a Thurston but they would trouble them - hell Briers tested them more than Sinfield, now there is a player who can pass and kick.

Get a grip and put country before club for once.

It's just a shame we dont have a Great Britain team anymore.

That way we may have got to have seen a proper 6 cause them some problems and structure some attacks.