https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/50042143 Hardacre William's Gildart Hastings Regards EW

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/50042143 Hardacre William's Gildart Hastings Regards EW

I’m guessing Hardaker has profited from Makinson’s injury. Makinson would’ve been first choice winger and back up for centre and they probably feel Hardaker can cover both as well as backing up the full back spot.

That squad looks pretty ropey to me, lacking balance and, in some areas, quality.

What sort of a squad has more half backs than props in it?

Only two wingers as well.

From a purely selfish Wigan point of view I wouldn't mind seeing Zak get a run at right centre against some decent opposition, give Lam something to think about for next season.

Coote
McGillvary
Hardaker
Gildart
Hall
Lomax
Hastings
Thompson
Hodgson
Walmsley
Bateman
Whitehead
Graham

Clark
Burgess
Hill
Jones

Guess they’re taking Trueman for experience but even without him, I think we’re one too heavy in the halfback department and one too light up front. I’d have left Blake Austin out to be honest. He’s struggled for fitness at the end of the year and to pick an overseas player with heritage they’d need to be in absolute top form and better then what we have already. In the cases of Coote and Hastings I think they are but is Austin that far ahead of Lomax or Williams? I’m not sure he is and I think Widdop is a better player.

We look light on options for the wing position but where do we go? I heard Ash Handley mentioned and nearly fell off my chair and I don’t think Charnley has ever been physical enough to be a good international winger. I think Hardaker has dropped on with his versatility to cover both those spots.

Overall Watts for Austin would’ve been my only change.

Agree with all of that.

As far as wingers are concerned, I'd have been tempted to name Grace once Knowles withdrew given it's a Lions squad. Even ignoring the Welsh aspect, I find it hard to make a case on this season's form for JMG or RH ahead of him, but happy to admit they have pedigree on this stage and defensively Grace would represent a risk.

Personally I’d swap Thompson and Graham, I think Thompson is more suited to 13 but either way it’s a very good team

Yeah if I remember rightly he played 13 against New Zealand very well last year so you’re correct, as previously mentioned above I’d like to see Zak given a go at 3 as that’s where I’d like to see him for Wigan next year

I’m not a Grace fan tbh and thats not because he’s a Saints player. He’s limited for me in regards his all round game and scoring some nice try’s using his searing pace, in a fantastic Saints side is a different ball game to coming up against the bruisers Tonga and NZ will have on their wings.

I’m a huge fan of McGillvary and Hall tbh. I’ve never bought in to international selections being done purely on form, they’ve also got to be done on suitability to the nature of internationals and you need the right characters. Those two have been brilliant for England over a long period and they’re safe as houses and will get us off our line even on a bad day. If we said let’s pick superleagues two available form wingers of the season for GB then you’d probably be looking at Handley, Grace, Marshall etc. All three would get butchered at that level IMO.

As an aside, no-one from Leeds, must be a while since that happened.

Just shows how the mighty can fall.

How’s Ryan Hall got in when he’s hardly played for Sydney Roosters?

Chris Hill hasn’t been god enough all year, what about Liam Watts?

Is this last years squad and they’ve just checked for injuries?

Coote, Austin and Hastings are Australian.

1 - Hardaker
2 - Handley
3 - Connor
4 - Gildart
5 - Charnley
6 - Lomax
7 - Widdop
8 - Watts
9 - Clarke
10 - Graham
11 - Whitehead
12 - Bateman
13 - Thompson

14 - Walmesley
15 - Burgess
16 - Hughes
17 - Williams (9 or 6)

Agree entirely.

Unfortunately the best 3 British wingers at present are all injured. Makinson, Manfredi and Johnstone.

Watts should be in that squad.

From the squad I’d go ...

Lomax
Hall
Gildart
Connor
McGilvary
Widdop
Hastings
Walmsley
Hodgson
Graham
Whitehead
Bateman
Thompson

Clarke
Burgess
Hill
Jones

I wouldn't argue with that at all, but I expect he's more likely to swap Lomax and Widdop.

Will be interesting to see Walmesley up against some equally large guys. I get the impression he has a soft interior behind that big aggressive appearance. A hard tackle and he will look a shadow of the big metre gainer he is against sub standard SL players mark my words.

Why the hell is Coote, Austin and Hastings in there? Its becoming a farce and any victory would look hollow. These guys are all Australian. Its got to the point that virtually anybody can play for anybody. Having an Aussie coach on top just makes it even more laughable.

Coote had previously declared for Scotland and played for them whilst in the NRL. Why is his inclusion such a travesty?

Hastings and Austin are different. Before they came here they’d have had no intentions of playing for England or GB but they qualify and it would be ludicrous not to consider them.

Australia do it, New Zealand too, Tonga have just started, England cricket, England RU, Wales RU, Scottish RU and Ireland RU do it amongst many, many others. Why are British RL fans the only ones who get up in arms about it?

About as farcical as wanting your team to lose to Salford so they didn't have to play Saints in the GF oops

If we can pick the Aussies, we might as well. Although I'm strongly against it.

I don't see why we can't make a blanket rule.


To qualify you either have to:

Have been born there

or

Lived there for 10 years consecutively



Surely this rule makes clear sense and can't upset many?

We’ve always had a massive downer on it in rugby league but it’s part and parcel of international sport now whether we like it or not. The Aussies have had a huge player pool to choose from for as long as I’ve watched the game, yet that’s never stopped them picking Fijians, Samoans and nipping in to get the odd player in front of the Kiwis.

The only thing I’d ask is that when we pick players of heritage then they’re in absolute top form and they’re definitely better then what we have. I’ve said above I think that applies to Hastings without doubt and Coote also (although I guess this will be a one off if we go back to England next year) but I’m not sure it does with Austin. Is he better than Lomax or Williams? Debatable IMO (and he’s got no form behind him) and I don’t think we need to overload the squad with heritage players.

No idea why Austin is in when he's been injured, has no form and we are covered for quality in the half backs already.

On the subject of people moaning about non GB or english born players being picked and how badly it reflects on RL. Take your head out of the sand and look around at every other inter ational sport,. Every england team has kiwi, south african, pacific islanders and has done for years. Almost half the cricet team were south african at one point.

This isn't a reason to knock RL. Same as criticising refs isnt a resaon to knock RL, every sport has problems justifying why a ref or video ref gets a decision wrong. Just look at the amount of umpiring decisions incorrectly called in the Ashes - and also those incorrectly called by the Aussie captain too!

I don't know why people are so he'll bent on moaning first instead of being positive. It's a big reason why as a sport we are shrinking.

It does make sense but even this would rule Jason Taumalolo, for example, out of playing for Tonga. The difficulty we have nowadays is that nationality can be a fluid concept and some people can identify with more than one country, or a country of their heritage more than the country of their birth. We can see, in the case of many of those Tongan players, that they identify themselves with their Tongan heritage, despite not having lived there, or been born there. I think the problem for a lot of people is when we start having heritage players like Blake Austin and Jackson Hastings where you know that they have never, before now, identified themselves as being British. Any year of their life before now, if you asked them "what" they were they would have told you Australian, and that, I think, is why it doesn't sit right with a lot of us.

Ultimately, attempting to define what someone else is from the outside is quite difficult and I think we will struggle to find a rule that works for every situation. The rules are as they are, other nations are profiting from it and have for a long time, so I can see why this has arisen and, whichever of the guys pulls on the shirt will have my full support once the game starts. But I think we are heading down a road that will one day lead to a re-evaluation of precisely what international sport is.

I’ve been waiting a lifetime to see us beat the Aussies in a series or World Cup , if and when we do I don’t want them saying we only did it because we had Australians in our team. I’d rather keep losing to be honest

A little luckier than you as I have seen GB win 2 Ashes series, once in England(1952) and the other in Aus.(1970).

Cannot see any more series wins in my remaining lifetime!