England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 8:01 am  

Has to be Danny Brough and Gareth Widdop for me, they are clearly the best two players and both should be available to England. With the change of coaching staff, this is an ideal time to get Brough, who clearly had personal issues with McNamarra to switch allegiance. Surely he would want the opportunity to work under the worlds greatest ever coach and potentially win a four nations and World Cup. Get on the phone Wayne.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 8:55 am  

Brough is a Scotland player and will play for them.He is also mid 30s, ship has sailed long agom

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 9:42 am  

Bennett has told Brough he wants him to play for England. Brough in turn has told McCormack. For the group stages of the tournament Scotland players will get £2k whereas England players will get £12k per man. Not that money should make a difference when representing 'your country' though!!

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 9:47 am  

I'm just waiting for Brough's inevitable drop in form now that he's had a decent 5 or so games.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 10:03 am  

Got to admire that loads of us complain about the ridiculous way players switch countries for internationals but when it may work in our favour we are all for it.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 10:20 am  

Biff Tannen wrote:

Brough is a Scotland player and will play for them.He is also mid 30s, ship has sailed long agom

I agree, he's 34 next year and approaching his "sell by date" as he starts to get a bit more injury prone. Not a player for the future and I always feel underwhelmed when Widdop plays for England.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 10:36 am  

Brown and Brough for me lately. Why does Widdop keep getting the Gig. He might be playing well fo St George, however, his England performances have been nothing better than average Our best halves or best combination must play. We've never played the best halves in the comp since the Gregory Schofield era. Brown and Brough must at least be trialled at some point.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 11:05 am  

Problem is Brown and Brough are wrong side of 30.we need to be finding a combination that will serve us for the next WC and beyond.Widdop will play as will many others because they play in a superior competition and that is almost certain to be the way of Bennetts thinking.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 11:31 am  

So what if he's 34 next year, if he helps us win a major trophy who cares? He is the best player available so should be selected.

Re: England half backs : Sat May 07, 2016 12:01 pm  

Whats happened to Williams? last year he was the best natural half back we've had since the 19th century, and Joe Mellor, who was the best half back since Williams

We have some very average half backs, let's be honest, Brough is the best by a mile, but he shouldn't play for England IMO, but other than that, Gale has probably looked the next best, Smith, Williams, Widdop, Brown,Mellor, etc are average, and don't even get me going on Tomkins!