LAST week the new England coach Brian McDermott released the details of a 38-man provisional England squad whose players are in pole position to be selected for the World Cup when it begins in October.

Only six of the 14 Super League clubs have players in the squad.

Those six clubs are the ones currently in the top six, which means that Leigh Leopards and the other seven clubs don’t have a single player in the squad.

It’s no surprise, given their current form, to see that Wigan are the club with the most selections, with eight in total.

Leeds, St Helens, Wakefield and Warrington have four each, while current champions Hull KR have three.

So 27 of the 38 selections are playing in Super League.

The other eleven are all playing in the NRL and they include some uncapped heritage players – Jayden Brailey, Billy Smith and Ben Talty, while Max King of the Bulldogs is also uncapped but he was actually born in England.

On the other hand, Caleb Hamlin-Uele is currently a Wakefield Trinity player who has been selected as a heritage player.

As with any squad selection, its strength is revealed by the quality of the players who didn’t get into it.

And I’m confident that I could select a potential England squad from those players who have not been selected that would give any international side a decent game.

How about the following team!

1 Olly Ashall-Bott (Toulouse Olympique), 2 Josh Thewlis (Warrington Wolves), 3 Harry Newman (Leeds Rhinos), 4 Umyla Hanley (Leigh Leopards), 5 Josh Charnley (Leigh Leopards), 6 Ewan Irwin (Warrington Wolves), 7 Lewis Dodd (Catalans Dragons), 8 Liam Byrne (Warrington Wolves), 9 Kruise Leeming (Catalans Dragons), 10 Rob Mulhern (Leigh Leopards), 11 Cameron Smith (Leeds Rhinos), 12 James Batchelor (Hull KR), 13 Elliot Minchella (Hull KR): Reserves: Lewis Martin (Hull FC), Tom Davies (Hull KR), Joe Burgess (Hull KR), Owen Trout (Leigh Leopards), Matty Lees (St Helens), George Delaney (St Helens), Jackson Hastings (St Helens), Oliver Pratt (Wakefield Trinity), Jack Farrimond (Wigan Warriors), Oliver Partington (Wigan Warriors).

I’m not suggesting that all those players should have been in the 38-man squad.

But none of them should give up hope of being selected in the squad that actually travels to Australia for the tournament in October.

A fitting goodbye

John Kear’s funeral was held on Friday at St John the Baptist Church in the South Yorkshire Pennine village of Penistone.

And it was a magnificent farewell to a man who lived and breathed Rugby League and who clearly loved his family and loved life.

There was video footage of his career as a player, coach and broadcaster, expertly put together by the BBC.

Former Sheffield Eagles Chairman Tim Adams carried the Challenge Cup into the church.

And there were several eulogies to his memory, including one by his son James, as well as by Dave Woods and Batley Chairman Kevin Nicholas, while one of his old college mates from his days in Leicestershire gave us a marvellous insight into John as a young student, when he was already demonstrating some of the qualities that would characterise his later career.

The whole event was superbly staged, although I still found it difficult to believe that he had actually departed from us almost three weeks earlier.

He will be sorely missed by many people.

The funeral was recorded and can be seen on YouTube here.