While I thought it was a better challenge for England than playing Wales or France...I think the lack of crowd will kill this fixture off, less than 8K at reduced prices will barely cover the costs of opening the Geri Halliwell for the night, and is only half the 14K crowd they got at Headingley for the first one.

I think the 14k at Headingley was mostly down to people seeing what it is all about and its clear that since the fans have not bought into the concept.Last nights game looked like nothing more than a friendly pre season run out with no passion whatsoever,the Exiles looked like they didnt give a toss first half.

Probables v Possibles would benefit England /GB more . The need to have a strong French national team will become more apparent as the quality of Aus/NZ players dwindles .

I agree, the 2011 game at Leeds also had much better marketing, they were flashing 'the Exiles are coming' on to the big screens for months for example.

I agree we need the French to become stronger, but England hammering them wouldn't help right now. They are also shooting themselves in the foot by hiring English coaches who have dubious records like Goulding and Agar, who don't even speak French! there must be a French coach out there who can do a better job, or someone like Justin Morgan or Trent Robinson who can speak the language.

Not Jack Reed? Far better than both those two.

Said this a week or so ago. It's simple, isn't it? England 'A' would have everything to play for and would be or equal, almost equal, or better

than their 'first team' counterparts. Plus, one against one would make those "difficult" decisions perhaps not-so-difficult for McBanana.

What i saw of him...he couldnt tackle a salad

The only draw back would be most of the probables would be playing in the NRL and those teams wouldn't release the players because of the match not been classed as an International.

I'll be very surprised if Cudjoe plays over Jack Reed.

Cudjoe would be 1st centre down on the list while watkins out.
Cudjoe is improving all the time. Is reed special at all? Or is he rated purely by playing in oz? Doesn't do much for me. Think watkins cudjoe or even Atkins would stand out more than reed in the same team.

Reed is a decent centre. Better than Cudjoe, far far better than Atkins. In fact, it's laughable how Atkins is any where near international RL.

Atkins isn't nothing special at all, but physically strong and fast, I gave him as an example of how much I don't buy into reed been great based on purely the fact he plays over there,barring great high kick catcher reed does nothing for me at all. I'd have cudjoe over Reed every day.

When you consider the players in the nrl I would think they'll all walk in to the gb squad.sam and George burgess,jack reed. Gareth widdop,and James graham.

Jack Reed has been in very good form just recently after a slow start.

I don't get the appeal about Reed. I've never seen him do anything special for England and never heard anyone raving about him for Brisbane. It seems like a case of "well, he's in the NRL..."

I've seen quite a bit of him and he's probably better than anything else we've got.

I've seen nearly all games this yr n cudjoe n Watkins would prob look better in same surroundings IMO. Watkins in particular on his day n before injury is massively better than reed in every department.

Just don't see it.

Saying that they would look better in the same surroundings is a bit of a nothing statement, just because I could say Reed would probably rip SL apart in Leeds' team.

Also don't think Watkins & Cudjoe are good enough for NRL, especially in defence.

If you can't see Watkins is infinitely better in every single facet of the game then I'd say your being blinded by the words N R L. He'd be outstanding in the right team with the right service. Cudjoe is winning me over, wasn't a massive fan but he's consistently good. Reed to me is a good centre, but nothing so special that he should be instantly penned in.
Not everything Australian is magnificent, as good as the overall league competition is and the pool of outstanding players there's still plenty of just solid players, even some bang average/poor ones too.

The whole 'players are over rated just because they play in the NRL' argument has gone full circle. Now, people are refusing to accept someone is a good player because they play in the NRL and must be over rated.

There are examples of both, Reed is a good solid centre and pretty close with what we have in Cudjoe and Watkins. He shouldnt walk straight in, the selection shoud be based on form from now to the end of the season which obviously puts Watkins at a disadvantage. However just the same as Reed shouldnt walk in cos hes in the NRL, Watkins shouldnt walk in if hes not played much doesnt find form and the other two are playing well.

Not sure why im applying any form of logic to this debate because Mcnamara is coach so its all irrelevant

Watkins and/or Cudjoe are not 'infinitely' better than Reed. Watkins is turning into a very good centre, Who eventually could do well in the NRL. Cudjoe is a decent centre, SL is his level. I expect our WC centres to be Watkins and Reed.

Anybody watch Reed this morning?

Still want to tell me he's not better than Cudjoe & Watkins?

He wasn't even at his best today either.

While we are talking about international RL...it mentions in RL World that most of the nations have got a World Cup warm-up game scheduled in (England are playing Italy) but NZ are still looking for a game.

Would like to see Hull make them an offer, previous games against Aus & NZ have drawn big crowds, and we have a history of having Kiwi players. We could schedule the game for the week after we win the Grand Final