When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke

When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke

I think Smith sees the train-on squad different to you. Rather than only pick players who would get in ahead of the current starting line up and have a train-on squad of 7 players, Smith is picking a mixture of the best players from teams already elminated plus promising young players like Ben Harrison, Tom Briscoe, and Stefan Ratchford who will almost certainly not play this year but have played for England at junior level and are showing the promise to do so for the senior side in the future. Smith clearly feels that they and therefore the England team, will benefit from them training with the elite players.

He will obviously get stick for daring to pick players who play for Warrington, but both players have had good seasons. Bridge offers strength and flexibility across the backline (his best position is centre and he only plays half-back now if Warrington have injuries), and Harrison is a good player who at 21 years old is established in the Warrington team and has a very good chance of becoming a full England international in time.
Neither player will play in the current series in my opinion.

More freaking swaping and changing. Once you play for one country you should not be allowed to change to a better side.

This to me is the key thing. A player signing for Warrington can be guaranteed international honours which gives them a massively unfair advantage in the transfer market.

The RFL should have been delighted to get rid of Smith when they had the chance to when he went to Wire.

The problem lies not with Smith but with the decision to split Great Britain into the home nations which still ranks as the worst decision we've made in our sport for quite a while. I have no problem with what Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland bring to the World Cup, however I was against dismantling Great Britain and playing the Australians and Kiwis as an England team because it undermines the availability of players for Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

People may not like the grandparent or citizenship rulings, however it is in place in pretty much every sport in the world except for maybe football which has incredible volumes of high quality players to counter those rulings.

We all know that Bridge is as likely to get into the England team as he is to win Man Of Steel but you can't blame Smith for wanting to gather the best resources available to him. If the four nations comp had Great Britain as our entrant then we wouldn't even be having this discussion which means that it is the original decision to enter England and not Great Britain whic is at fault.

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528'" When I first saw that thread, I had the feeling you had something against Tony Smith and the Warrington Wolves. Quote ="Durham Giant"Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html '" Now with this thread, you have just confirmed it. Do you seriously think Bridge or Harrison will get a starting spot for the Four Nations? It's a Train-On Squad for christs sake, not the actual team. There is no guarantee of anything at the moment. Saying that though, Harrison has been one of our best players this year. You really need to get a grip and cease with this Anti-Warrington vitriol that you keep spouting.

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528'" When I first saw that thread, I had the feeling you had something against Tony Smith and the Warrington Wolves. Quote ="Durham Giant"Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html '" Now with this thread, you have just confirmed it. Do you seriously think Bridge or Harrison will get a starting spot for the Four Nations? It's a Train-On Squad for christs sake, not the actual team. There is no guarantee of anything at the moment. Saying that though, Harrison has been one of our best players this year. You really need to get a grip and cease with this Anti-Warrington vitriol that you keep spouting.

Similar to Venables putting Spurs players in the England side in the 90s.

A club coach who can't put aside club loyalties should not be a national coach

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke'" Who? I know you don't care but harrison's up there with moz as one of our players of the year, after being a bit part player looking talented but without a position under cullen, smith came in and gave him a specific role, playing at looseforward in the same way that burgess does, an extra prop w/o getting the full workload. He's been a tower in defence, putting in some massive hits and doing a lot of mopping up work in scrambling defence, it's no coincidence that round july when our form went again and we fell away from the 8, it was it coincided with ben being out injured and our defence falling apart somewhat. Bridge has probably been brought in for a bit more competition/an option at right centre, he's more than filled the gap left by gleeson and I don't recall many rightsided 3/4s in the squad.

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke'" Who? I know you don't care but harrison's up there with moz as one of our players of the year, after being a bit part player looking talented but without a position under cullen, smith came in and gave him a specific role, playing at looseforward in the same way that burgess does, an extra prop w/o getting the full workload. He's been a tower in defence, putting in some massive hits and doing a lot of mopping up work in scrambling defence, it's no coincidence that round july when our form went again and we fell away from the 8, it was it coincided with ben being out injured and our defence falling apart somewhat. Bridge has probably been brought in for a bit more competition/an option at right centre, he's more than filled the gap left by gleeson and I don't recall many rightsided 3/4s in the squad.

correct. which is another reason why Smith shouldnt be national coach.

So who should be national coach then?

Someone who doesn't already have loyalties to a club !!

Phil Gould

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke'" Totally agree. Wonder if Harrison and Bridge will have the same comments thrown at them,as Brough did when he defected from Scotland. FWIW it just shows the RFL dont give a flying **** about the international game. We are light years behind the Aussies and Kiwis and will continue to be so with this clown at the helm.

Quote ="Durham Giant"When i posted thisthread i had my doubts about Tony Smith viewtopic.php?t=430528 Now with this it has confirmed them www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... gland.html Is Bridge really going to be an England half back ahead of Pryce, Myler, Tompkins, Rachford, Burrows etc. Is Harrison going to be ahead of Wilkin Burgess, JJb etc. then why are they in the train on squad for England now . What has it done to attempts to get a meaningful international competition now Ireland have lost two key players. Between the RFL and Smith they are messing up International RL. Aditionally what does it say to club players come to Warrington and i will get you in the international squad. The sooner Smith **** off the better for England internationally he is incompetent, nepotistic and possibly a fifth columnist for the ARL and RU. What a waste of space Particularly when you look at the players left out. Dale Ferguson should have walked in ahead of Harrison. What a joke'" Totally agree. Wonder if Harrison and Bridge will have the same comments thrown at them,as Brough did when he defected from Scotland. FWIW it just shows the RFL dont give a flying **** about the international game. We are light years behind the Aussies and Kiwis and will continue to be so with this clown at the helm.

Some one who can do it full time would be a start.

I actually made a bit of a comment saying in the future Bridge could be an England centre.
Bridge is probably a bit small but jesus christ if Ryan atkins is being touted for the position then Bridge should be a cert. In fact, I fail to see the real reason Smith has signed atkins

I really don't think this is the story some people would like to believe it is...

Since Smith took over, Warrington played 26 games between then and the challenge cup final inclusive and won 16 of them (of the losses it could be said that some might have been due to the challenge cup e.g. playing Wigan the week after the semi). In comparison the best team in the competition Leeds, played 22 games in the same period with no challenge cup to worry about for most of the season and won 15 of them.

I'm not saying we are as good as Leeds or anything like that, but people who point to the league table as a reason why no Warrington players should be in the squad aren't looking at the full picture. Warrington played well for large parts of the season, particularly in the big games (e.g. challenge cup semi against in form Wigan).

There are players in the Warrington team who had good seasons regardless of what some people would like to believe.

And for the other 46 weeks of the year what will they be doing to justify a full-time salary?

i think its fair to say that if TS wasn't the Warrington coach that Bridge and Harrison would hav ebeen laughed at by said gentleman if someone suggested adding them to an England squad.
Huddersfield and Hull KR have had great seasons but we only have 3 players picked - Scott Moore is a Saints player in reality - between us, i'm sure if its just a train-on squad it wouldn't have hurt to throw a couple of players from either club in there to give them the 'experience' of training with the 'elite' players. !

As I said on the other thread, a lot of the talent in the teams around us is foreign. Brough was unlucky to miss out, possibly ferguson from wakey but other than that..

Your suggestions being?

That is about as wobbly an argument as I have ever read. The league table represents the bigger picture regarding player performance and doesn't focus on one tema, unlike your argument. The fact that a team finishing in 10th can have more players than 9 other clubs combined, with at least 5 of them finishing above Warrington is dubious.

Look at Higham, for example. The lad has spent a massive part of the season out injured and gets picked, yet he justifies Bridges selection partly on the fact that Bridge didn't get injured.

I think if you look at several other sides and their performance in the same timeframe since Smith took over at Wire there would not be much between them, if anything, at all.

If Smith wasn't coach of Wire I personally don't believe that either Bridge or Harrison would have been selected. And maybe one or two more from Wire would have missed out.

Cudjoe,Mason from the Giants
Welham from KR off the top of my head although i'm sure people could add to that list

The league table represents how well a team has performed over the course of a season, not the relative form of its respective England eligible players

An international coach who picks players on the basis of where their team finished in the league table is in the wrong job.

Incidentally, which of the smattering of England qualified players at Huddersfield, Hull KR and Wakefield made such overwhelming cases for their inclusion but were omitted? Arguably the best players at each of these clubs this season have been Antipodean.

it was about 8 weeks which isn't massive, however just to put your mind at rest, higham's already been told theres about 2/3 other hookers ahead of him in the squad.

What a kerfuffle over nothing!!!!

It dosn't matter who Tony Smith picks for the England side the team will not beat the Aussies!!

They may put up a show against the Kiwis and probably beat France.

Most people, I suggest, would probably agree so why worry and get upset over something that is inevitable?