https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61786784
McIlorum? Seriously? The sport is a joke if you can just switch country allegiances whenever it suits.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61786784
McIlorum? Seriously? The sport is a joke if you can just switch country allegiances whenever it suits.
I ate a tuna sandwich on my first day!
Congrats to Joe Batchelor - incredibly well deserved (alongside our other representatives).
Anyone find it weird that the England coach involved in the Wigan set up only saw fit to include 2 Wigan players (and a Huddersfield player who cant get into the team, but Wigan want to sign) whilst Warrington in their awful form have 5 representatives? Surely Harry Smith should be in ahead of Ratchford? Havard ahead of Philbin, Marshall ahead of Ashton? Especially with the news that Field and French are also dropping out of the All Stars squad?
After the vitriol the Wigan fans spilt last year (to the point they had to come out before the squads were announced this year to explain with 8 representatives it wasnt reasonable to strip our team further) surely they wouldnt be doing exactly what they accused us of???
Really poor team.
Struggle to see how so many Warrington players have made the squad.
Massive congrats to Batch. What a rise he’s had.
Just a thought. Don’t pick to many Wigan players to prevent possible injury / Suspension for what’s a completely pointless game. Wigan England coach picks loads of Saints players run them into the ground!
I’m sure Cullen will be there in person ready with his ban Saints players check sheet..
Humans are more concerned with having than being.
Very odd team. No Knowles seems the big one for me, unless someone knows something I don't.
It depends what Wane is looking to get out the game. Maybe he is trying to work out who else makes his squad and his auto picks are given the game off?
I could agree with you but then we would both be wrong.
You'd have thought it would be a chance to either get as close to the World Cup 17 together for a game. Or, failing that, to give a try-out to emerging players.
I don't see the point in playing guys whose best days are well behind them. Hall, McShane, Ratchford, Watkins at least should be nowhere near an England squad these days. There's a Roby-shaped hole in the squad, so I guess you could make a case for Paddy Whack (although he's a very limited player), but McShane had a couple of years' purple patch and has faded a lot the last couple of seasons.
Problem is is that there is no one of any real quality coming through to take spaces. Hall is the 2nd top English try scorer in the comp at the moment, and not much else behind him (is Marshall injured on just Wigan biased leaving him out to keep him fresh?) and also up there in terms of carries, clean breaks and metres made. McShane 2nd top tackle maker, but the other two nowhere near top 10 on any stats, so those two must just be for experience....
Interestingly, Welsby is only top 10 on tackle busts and errors made (of which he's made the most....)
I ate a tuna sandwich on my first day!
In terms of wingers, where are Marshall (as you say) and Davies?
Hope the rest of our lads pull out with niggles. It’s a laughable team against laughable opposition in a laughable concept.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
Wane ensuring that his beloved Pies get a week off, whilst their nearest and dearest have to play yet another fixture, risking injury and with the current theme re officiating, yellow cards and suspension. Who would've thought it?
I don’t. It’s not up to us to decide what England games we do and don’t consider deserving of our players.
Agree it’s a rubbish game, but I would assume from Wane’s point of view preparing for a World a cup it is important. Let’s do the right thing and not undermine it any further.
Good luck to the lads who might make their full England debuts - will be a big deal for them.
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I'm not sure how good an idea these games are mid season. Clubs and players clearly don't care enough and the game becomes a farce every year. The England team is never full strength and the all stars team ends up a cobbled mess. The fact a few English players are in the squad shows how desperate it has become.
It may be worth having a full season of Super League, having the final a week earlier and then having a warm up game before a big event in future as the clubs will support it more then.
Every single fan will just be hoping their players come out of it unscathed.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
Me to a meaningless game . How many from team of the month Wigan !! .Warrington near bottom no one outstanding but 5 says it all . Even the2 star players for Wigan have pulled out of there team. Don’t want to get injured. The corrupt RFL at it again. .
A nothing fixture, and completely pointless, but hey ho.
Not sure how the likes of Michael McIlorum, Mike McMeeken, Mikolaj Oledzki, Joe Philbin and Stefan Ratchford get in there when all of them have been pedestrian this year.
Playing a cobbled mess of an all stars team is still better than putting 60 past France or wales. I also get that Wane wants to be able to have a good look at players but the only way to get a full strength side out would be to either fly the NRL players over here or to fly the super league players out there.
I’d love to see a dedicated international weekend down under with England v Aus, NZ v Tonga, Fiji v Samoa, PNG v Cook Islands. Have the games all on one day as a festival of rugby. Then a Wales v Scotland, Ireland v France double header up here. Can’t see it though.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
The NRL have a scheduled 'representative round' in the calendar and it's the weekend of the 25-26th June.
Samoa vs Cook Islands
PNG vs Figi
NZ vs Tonga
NSW vs QLD
Shame that something couldn't be done as you suggest to include sides from the northern hemisphere.
On a side note, the New Zealand vs Tonga game could be as exciting as Origin 2. Really interesting to see the Tonga team...They'll be missing a few through those over here and those who may opt to play in Origin, but they have some real talent emerging in Olakau'atu in the second row (plays for Manly) and Koula either at full back, wing or centre. He's been clocked at 10.58s for the 100m. He's just 19 and starting to show what he can do. He's also at Manly.
*Not to be confused with Mike Stephenson, MBE
Hopefully under this new IMG deal getting a more cohesive international game is on their list of priorities. The NRL clubs have too much veto power at the moment. I know a lot of people don’t really give a toss about international rugby but without meaningful international competition rugby league in the UK is destined to slowly slide into a provincial semi professional sport.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Trying to muster some sort of enthusiasm for this game is hard. As I have said in another post, it's turned into a bit of a mess. We’ve ended up with a half-baked England side playing against a load of strangers cobbled together on Monday plus any English lads not deemed good enough for England. I am going to watch the game but it almost feels forced!
Having said that, I've scribbled down what I would pick from the 20 named, I think it will be something along the lines of:
Tomkins
Maksinon
Watkins
Wardle
Hall
Welsby
Williams
Walmsley
McShane
Cooper
McMeeken
Farrell
Bateman
McIlorum
Batchelor
Oledzki
Lees
Ashton, Philbin and Ratchford to miss out. However I know Wane is a big fan of Ratchford so him on the bench over Batchelor wouldn't surprise me.
You could probably name a side as good, if not better, made up of players not playing this weekend who will be in and around the World Cup squad - so I am not sure what we are going to learn from this weekend really. Off the top of my head you have the NRL based lads (Burgess, Whitehead, Sutton, Farnworth, Young) plus the likes of Lomax, Knowles, Percival, Davies, Marshall, Currie, Newman, Clark who would all have chances. It could be a very very different England team that faces Samoa in a few months.
NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS
I usually look forward to England/GB games but I have zero interest in this one.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies