4 nations time.

[huddgiant01]

As you all know the end of season competition will soon be amung us. What do you think the outcome will be at the end, silly question really England win :wink:
As i am off to both the Australia and New Zealand games which players should i be looking out for?
My tip for a player in the England squad is the guy in my picture Eorl Crabtree a man mountain 6 foot 6 and 18 stone.

Out of interest how well represented is this competition in the press and amung yourselves?

Best of luck you will need it😉

Come on England :righton:

 

[tiger_sean]

Australia are heavy favourites and for a reason.
I can see England improving from their lacklustre world cup performance
but I think both Australia and NZ will be a bit too good for your boys.
From NZ look out for Benji Marshall and Adam Blair.
From Australia look out for Billy Slater and Jared Hayne both were on fire in the finals series.
There is a fair amount of press interest for the series but so far there is just the odd interview from the
Aussie team but it will pick up when the tournament starts.

 

[stryker]

You should really look out for a bloke named Gareth Ellis….rumour has it he can play.

 

[Marshall_magic]

Australia will be lead by the usual suspects: Lockyer, Thurston, Slater, Inglis, Petro etc, along with Hayne and Watmough who recently took their game to the next level. They will be very hard to beat.

New Zealand's danger men will be Marshall, Blair, Lima, FFMM, and a few more of their forwards (Pritchard if he pulls his finger out). Their backline is lacking a little (esp without the beast and the tank), the only 2 that really strike any fear into me as an Aussie fan are Goodwin (who can score a try or 3) and Perrett (who will bust his guts for 80, break lots of tackles and run the ball a long way).

 

[Jazza]

I think the forwards are evenly matched, but i think the difference will be the Australian backline, Im not expecting a lot of points from the other sides.

 

[Marshall_magic]

I think the forwards are evenly matched, but i think the difference will be the Australian backline, Im not expecting a lot of points from the other sides.

I think in the forwards we're the weakest (besides France). We've shot ourselves in the foot not picking Ben Creagh. We'll be relying on the individual brilliance of the likes of Inglis, Hayne, Slater, Hodges and Thurston to win games.

 

[stryker]

I think the forwards are evenly matched, but i think the difference will be the Australian backline, Im not expecting a lot of points from the other sides.

I think in the forwards we're the weakest (besides France). We've shot ourselves in the foot not picking Ben Creagh. We'll be relying on the individual brilliance of the likes of Inglis, Hayne, Slater, Hodges and Thurston to win games.

Correct Marshall….Some of these forwards should not have been awarded a ticket. Pressure is really going to be on them as that is where every side will attack us - our backline is brilliant and should run over every side comfortably.

 

[Jazza]

I think the forwards are evenly matched, but i think the difference will be the Australian backline, Im not expecting a lot of points from the other sides.

I think in the forwards we're the weakest (besides France). We've shot ourselves in the foot not picking Ben Creagh. We'll be relying on the individual brilliance of the likes of Inglis, Hayne, Slater, Hodges and Thurston to win games.

Correct Marshall….Some of these forwards should not have been awarded a ticket. Pressure is really going to be on them as that is where every side will attack us - our backline is brilliant and should run over every side comfortably.

Looking at the side picked, I agree, I mean White, Hoffman, even Thaiday… No no no no no.

Luke Douglas > White
David Stagg > Hoffman
Ben Creagh > Thaiday

 

[Marshall_magic]

I think in the forwards we're the weakest (besides France). We've shot ourselves in the foot not picking Ben Creagh. We'll be relying on the individual brilliance of the likes of Inglis, Hayne, Slater, Hodges and Thurston to win games.

Correct Marshall….Some of these forwards should not have been awarded a ticket. Pressure is really going to be on them as that is where every side will attack us - our backline is brilliant and should run over every side comfortably.

Looking at the side picked, I agree, I mean White, Hoffman, even Thaiday… No no no no no.

Luke Douglas White
David Stagg Hoffman
Ben Creagh Thaiday

Hoffman is a player who can hit a hole on the fringes, a decent line breaking back rower. A poor man's Ben Creagh is a good way of describing him. So why did Creagh miss out?

White is very lucky because of injuries to make the side. Galloway, Price, Weyman are all unavailable, and Justin Poore is strongly disliked by Queensland players after SOO 3 I would assume, which would've counted against him. Although, White did play much better from origin 3 till the end of the season than he has played in previous years.

Thaiday would make my squad almost any day of the year.