8 Wires named in England RL Squad

[steef]

widdop

hall

gleeson

atkins

briscoe

tomkins

robinson/eastmond if he can prove he's fit

morley

sinfield

graham

ellis

westwood

burgess

roby

lynch

fielden

o'loughlin

mainly based upon this seasons stats, with the exception of widdop, who for me against france looked to be way better than anything we have over here, I just don't think tomkins' one on one defence is upto playing fullback at international level plus we're short in the halves with no mcguire/pryce/maybe eastmond wich is why robinson is there, his stats put him as best of the rest for me. I've tried to pick players with reasonably low error and penalty counts (in most cases) as we really don't need to be putting preasure on ourselves.

[jackknife]

For what its worth this would be my England side for the 4 Nations.

1. Garreth Widdop sam tomkins

2. Peter Fox

3. Ryan Atkins

4. Michael Shenton

5. Ryan Hall

6. Sam Tomkins richie myler

7. Kyle Eastmond

8. Adrian Morley

9. Kevin Sinfield

10. Sammy Burgess

11. Garreth Ellis

12. Ben Westwood

13. Sean O'Loughlin

14 James Graham

15 Joel Tomkins

16 Richie Myler earl crabtree

17 James Roby

not far off my side there wendall

[Allan Marsden]

Anybody think Earl needs to shed a few pounds and that he has become a tad too big.

[Odsal Outlaw]

If Tomkins is at FB, Australia and the Kiwis will target him with high kicks and isolate him one on one with the runners in the SH backlines.

Tomkins v Vatuvei or Hayne etc will be a non event.

O'Donnell is a fine player but not at the top of the Tree, he had Tomkins looking like a speed bump.

wich is why robinson is there, his stats put him as best of the rest for me.

Fair point re: Tomkins, he may come undone defensively and under the high ball, but in terms of attacking capability I think he's the best we've got. Also think Robinson may be worth a shout, I'd not really thought of him. Presuming Eastmond isn't fit enough (otherwise have him) then you could play Sinfield at 13 but with a play-maker type role and have Tomkins as a 6 with more of a free roaming role so that he effectively attacks as he does now from FB at Wigan. That would leave the FB slot for someone who is more solid from a defensive perspective.