No surprise to see Lockers moved to stand-off, but Robinson's starting line-up selection is a bit of a shock to me after he was run down last week.

Any stats wizards know if (and when) they (last) played half-back together for Wigan ? Thinking circa 2003 or 2004 if it ever happened...

I dont recall that particular combination ever, but may be wrong.

I love how Banana talks about the need for consistency, then makes 11 changes and a new spine to the team. Panic button officially pressed and wasted a fortnight building 'wrong' combinations.

Sam at fb is a good move but not sure that completly changing the team with a weeks prep is a good move.

Other than the halves I'd say it looks a stronger squad on paper.

Looks about right

Cujoe in for shenton due to injury

Widdop out due doing nothing and sam to fb as being a big threat from the fringes so westwood needs to be in the team for goal kicking

Robinson has done more than brown in the previous games

Lockers has played well for us this year in the halfs when he has needed to

I agree though does mac really have a plan? a brand new half back pairing does not sound ideal!!

I would have had Sam & Lockers in the halves and Joel at right centre.

Try and stiffle the Aussies and give thema bit of size in the three quarters

looks like mcnamera have given all the rest there scapegoat for our embarrassing hammering by putting lockers at 6.

What's the full team?

Not sure of last time but as Lam was injured they were paired at half-back for the 2003 Grand Final

Stupid decision and totally unfair on Lockers.

As we have seen for Wigan, Lockers will always put his hand up and play where he is asked to, and credit to him for that.

To put him at half in the SL is bad enough, to play him at half against the Australian test team is utter madness.

He does have a good passing game and should be better than Brown at getting the ball to the threequarters.

He won't be found wanting in defence and he is far more comfortable at this level than Brown.

Big! Big responsibility on Robinson to show some control and essentialy to lay on decent kicking performance.

S.Tomkins
Goulding, Cudjoe, Atkins, Briscoe
O'Loughlin, Robinson
Burgess, Roby, Graham
Ellis, J. Tomkins
Westwood

Fielden, Crabtree, Lunt, Harrison

Who is everyone choosing as their scapegoat for the inevitable loss? I'm going to go for little Luke and Burgess.

I'm going for the RFL.

Thought we'd seen the end of 13s at 6 for England.

Feel sorry for Lockers. Was our best player last weekend IMO and is an out and out 13, and a very good one at international level.

Should have gone for a Hudds combination of Brown/Robinson in the halves and Atkins should be nowhere near the centres, although I rate him as a winger. fielden is a starting prop IMO and if he's in the team, he should be taking the pitch from the first minute. I'd have gone:

FB - S Tomkins
RW - T Briscoe
RC - D Goulding
LC - L Cudjoe
LW - R Atkins
SO - K Brown
SH - L Robinson
P - J Graham
H - S Lunt
P - S Fielden
SR - G Ellis
SR - B Westwood
LF - S O'Loughlin

INT - S Burgess
INT - E Crabtree
INT - J Tomkins
INT - J Roby

More oomph off the bench.

Bl**dy Mathers !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd go with all of that.

I'd rather see Atkins at Centre than Goulding though given the choice.

Anybody else think we might come home winless? If we cant beat Cumbria and the Moaris then PNG arent going to be push overs. England has always been miles behind on the international scene i think this prick is going to put us back even further.

Someone like Danny Brough would walk into this team. Shame he's 'Scottish'. We could really do with his kicking game.

This team selection reminds me of the Maurice Bamford era. Bewildering selections, with the most obvious players and combinations not used. Weird.

After last weeks performance things needed to change.

O'Loughlin is light years ahead of Brown at 6. As Bilko said it shows our game up for what it is but sadly with the squad he has it is the best option and will be able to link up with Sam and Robinson well.

Cudjoe at centre?? completely mental! I would have just played Brown at centre, his best position. A wing/centre partnership of Goulding and Cudjoe is not good enough at international level, nevermind against the Aussies.

Karl Pryce.

Aint Widdop getting the Number 6 jersey for Storm next year? Surely would of been logical for him and Sam to swap. Good luck lads you will need it

I appreciate that Kevin Brown may not be everyone's idea of a great stand-off (he certainly isn't mine!) but I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with FTV, whose post I thought was excellent.

As well though as the selection of Sean at standoff being wrong in pure rugby terms its also very unfair to Lockers.

Playing him out of position is almost inevitably going to result in more Lockers bashing on this board, this site and elsewhere.

Andy Farrell was played out of position far too often and is therefore unfairly criticised for not having done well enough at international level to justify his status as the greatest British player of his generation.

Following the inevitable hammering at the hands of the Aussies on Sunday Sean will be scapegoated as not being international class. As a result of this selection Sean will like Faz before him attract a lot of flak from the idiots in the RL media and the even bigger idiots that pillory Lockers on this board (I actually saw one post from an utter cretin that accused Lockers of "not turning up" in the first test against NZ, even though the lad made 40 tackles - you just couldn't make it up!





).

I expect Lockers, like Faz before him, will take one for the team and give his usual 110%, though that makes this even more wrong.

At times I despair for RL, though perhaps the fact that I'm in agreement for once with FTV shows that progress is possible!

They last played in the halves together in 2004 I think; certainly in the Super League.
For what it's worth our Super League record with O'Loughlin and Robinson in the halves (not including playoffs) is played 9, won 6, drawn 2, lost 1.
I know it means absolutely nothing but I got bored. Our biggest win with that pairing was 68-12 against the powerhouse that is Halifax. Our only loss was against London Broncos. Luckily they won't be coming up against a side of that quality at the weekend.