Goulding could make his debut if Hall doesnt recover from hamstring injury:

England: G Widdop (Melbourne); T Briscoe (Hull), M Shenton (Castleford), R Atkins (Warrington), D Goulding (Wigan) or R Hall (Leeds); K Brown (Huddersfield), S Tomkins (Wigan); J Graham (St Helens, capt), J Roby (St Helens), S Fielden (Wigan), G Ellis (Wests Tigers), S Burgess (South Sydney), S O'Loughlin (Wigan).

Subs (from): L Robinson (Huddersfield), D Griffin (Huddersfield), B Westwood (Warrington), J Tomkins (Wigan), E Crabtree (Huddersfield), L Cudjoe (Huddersfield).

That's the side I picked

Expect a 30+ point Kiwi win.

We're going to get spanked

Bang in a quality half to play alongside Tomkins and I would be much more confident. As it is I anticipate that it will be a close game. Personally I do think that the Kiwi's are all that hot upfront. Blair for me is much better in the backrow.

Call me an eternal optimist but I think we can do it.

By half time.

We've got no chance.

I agree, the pessimism surrounding England teams is ridiculous at times.

Yes I know it's based on experience, but we have competed with NZ well recently - even at the horrible World Cup we should have won the first game and could have nicked the second, despite being absolutely atrocious.

True enough, but it's been a while since we had a back line that inexperienced.

But it has also been a while since we had a back line with this much pace. I think we will do well on saturday and maybe win, hope daz plays, he thoroughly deserves it after this season.

The team has been named.
[urlhttp://www.englandrl.co.uk/article.php?id=19911[/url

That is quite a big pack, the backs is my concern though

Not a bad side IMO.

I think England will do well.

Big error leaving out Crabtree IMO, can change a game

Congratulations to Darrell Goulding - how he has proved his critics wrong.

Surprised that Crabtree wasn't included. The Aussies/Kiwis seem to struggle to deal with him for some reason.

I wasn't too impressed with his seemingly random offloads at the weekend, combined with Griffin having a good game I can understand this move, even though I probably would have given Crabtree another shot while he was so good in the last four nations and they struggle a lot with his size.

Can't agree. While I think Crabtree has had a poor season i felt he played well last week. He is suited to International football. Those seemingly random offloads lead to clean breaks and tries.

He is a game breaker and not picking him for me is a very negative tactic in a team that only seems able to attack in broken field plays.

I'm not confident. We should be able to match them up front, but the threequarter matchups worry me. If we can keep it tight in the middle, and hope for midfield breaks from Roby, Tomkins & Robinson, we might have a chance.

Bookies have Kiwis by 16, which I fear is about right.

The one big advantage we'll have is the superb playing strip:



I really like it, for some reason...

Griffin for Crabtree will have put big smalls on the Kiwi's faces.

Its realism.

They have a far better all round side and will dominate on home soil.

Two of our three tries last week had a Crabtree offload in them.

?

I can't believe Crabtree is not playing! Well done to Goulding who has been superb! He came into super league as a centre and was pretty poor, the things he did at reserve level did not work for him in super league. Since the switch to wing against the Wire in game 3 he has looked like a different player this year.

So you reckon "30+ points by half time. We've no chance" is realism rather than pessimism?

There's no way we'll be down by 30 at half time to NZ, it's the typical nonsense we hear all the time from England "fans".

England 24 NZ 36 (in Australia)
NZ 32 England 22 (in Australia)
England 20 NZ 12 (in England)

There's our last 3 results, but you're telling me that being down 30+ points at half time is the realistic approach?

Give over with the white flag stuff, we're not French.

So you think Griffin is better than crabtree

I would have gone with Griffin and Crabtree off the bench! Think we will struggle pushing Westwood up!

Still think we are light in the backs. Not sure Shenton and Atkins are good enough! Briscoe doesnt offer enough going forward and Goulding may be isolated without a dominant centre inside him!