Shocking GB test team

[Fairleigh Good!]

Sean O'Loughlin (Wigan, 23, 3)
Terry Newton (Bradford, 27, 9)
Jamie Peacock (Leeds, 28, 18)
Lee Gilmour (St Helens, 28, 9)
Danny McGuire (Leeds, 23, 5)
James Graham (St Helens, 20, 0)
Jamie Langley (Bradford, 23, 0)
Rob Burrow (Leeds, 23, 1)
Paul Wellens (St Helens, 26, 12)
Ade Gardner (St Helens, 22, 0)
Martin Gleeson (Warrington, 26, 14)
Keith Senior (Leeds, 30, 25)
Gareth Raynor (Hull, 28, 1)
Leon Pryce (St Helens, 24, 10)
Sean Long (St Helens, 29, 10)
Stuart Fielden (Bradford, 26, 20)
Keiron Cunningham (St Helens, 29, 15)
Adrian Morley (Sydney Roosters, 29, 21)
Paul Sculthorpe (St Helens, capt, 28, 25)
Gareth Ellis (Leeds, 25, 8)

Some absolutely embarassing selections.

O'Loughlin is an utter joke. He has been horrificly bad this season.
Newton was never good enough. He has been banned for 6 months and anonymous and overweight since his return.
Sculthorpe currently doesn't deserve to be in the Saints 17, never mind captaining GB.

Unbelievable.

 

[nadera78]

Shocking is the right word. Shocking players. And schocking that Noble thinks he can pick such a team. Absolutely disgraceful.

I was planning on going, but to travel up from London, buy a ticket, get a hotel room all in would have cost me a lot of money. I won't bother now, NZ will win by a country mile. In fact I think the Jnr Kiwis would beat this team.

 

[gaterooze]

It's all the same old names Noble picks... surely they could have used this one-off game as a chance to try some new blood???

And not 1 Salford player? What do they have to do?!

 

[Scott]

David Hodgson??? Hello..........

Gareth Raynor :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Dr Crane]

New Zealand by 43

 

[nadera78]

Gareth Raynor is by far the least of the problems with that list of players.

1)Sculthorpe - shadow of the player he was, barely keeps pace in SL.
2)O'Loughlin - well I'll be jiggered if there are any redeeming features to him.
3)Newton - a thug not an RL player. And he is now slow and overweight.
4)Langley - barely even registers as a player for bradford and is far far too slow for international RL.
5)Wellens - great defender but slowest full back in the world. not good enough at this level, as has already been proved.
6)Long - bags of pace and top support player, but he has no rugby skills whatsoever. Ask him to control a game from 7 and your buggered.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

Gareth Raynor is by far the least of the problems with that list of players.

1)Sculthorpe - shadow of the player he was, barely keeps pace in SL.
2)O'Loughlin - well I'll be jiggered if there are any redeeming features to him.
3)Newton - a thug not an RL player. And he is now slow and overweight.
4)Langley - barely even registers as a player for bradford and is far far too slow for international RL.
5)Wellens - great defender but slowest full back in the world. not good enough at this level, as has already been proved.
6)Long - bags of pace and top support player, but he has no rugby skills whatsoever. Ask him to control a game from 7 and your buggered.

I agree, apart from the Long criticism should be qualified with an 'at international level' after 'from 7'.

He has dominated Super League this season and his fitness is the key to whether Saints win the double or not.

 

[Lowey3]

Paul Wellens gets criticised again for Nothing!!

He is by far better than Bowen, Hodgson and Webb (two origin full backs a=nd the Kiwi regular)

He does lack pace in attack but a bomb goes up and you know for a fact he'll catch it. A man brakes the defensive line and you know Wellens will bring him down.

Fair enough he aint no fance player like the Australia type but his other attributes are far greater.

Considering people call his attack - he is always in the top 5 metre makers - every week!!

 

[ParraDude_Jay]

Paul Wellens gets criticised again for Nothing!!

He is by far better than Bowen, Hodgson and Webb (two origin full backs a=nd the Kiwi regular)

He does lack pace in attack but a bomb goes up and you know for a fact he'll catch it. A man brakes the defensive line and you know Wellens will bring him down.

Fair enough he aint no fance player like the Australia type but his other attributes are far greater.

Considering people call his attack - he is always in the top 5 metre makers - every week!!

:lol: Last time I checked, Webb was the pick of the fullbacks in the Tri-Nations and Wellens was his usual.. nothing. He is too slow and can't break the line at international level. He may be in the top 5 metre makers, but the fact that he is a fullback and does all the kick returns makes that stat less impressive.

Sorry but if Wellens is the best fullback GB can come up with then you're really struggling.

 

[Dr Crane]

He is by far better than Bowen, Hodgson and Webb (two origin full backs a=nd the Kiwi regular)

Its official. The fog and cold weather has broken your brain.

 

[The Observer]

Its not a bad squad, but it won't beat the Kiwis. These would be my teams:

KIWIS: R Paul; Volcano, Hape, Talau, Meli; Ben Roberts (Dogs), Jones; Chan, Tony, J Cayless; Swann, Solomona, Kidwell (c). BENCH: Feka (prop), Ali (prop/2nd row), Eastwood, V Anderson (both cover 3/4s, five eighth, backrow)

GB: McGuire; Gardner/Raynor, Gleeson, Senior, Pryce; Long, Burrow; Sculthorpe (c), Peacock, Ellis; Morley, Cunningham, Fielden. BENCH: Graham (prop), Langley (backrow), Newton (dummyhalf/backrow), Gilmour (backrow/centre)

I'd put McGuire at fullback because he has good pace, good acceleration from a standing start, a great step and is an excellent support player, but I don't think he quite has the passing and playmaking skills to put his backs through gaps at test level. Similarly, IMO Long's skills are best suited to five eighth not halfback. Nevertheless, Noble will probably select the plodding Wellens at 1, Pryce/Scully at 6. O'Loughlin/Ellis at 13 and McGuire as a replacement dummy half.

As such, I expect the Kiwis will win by 12.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The GB squad is not that bad. What other options are there?

O'Laughlin was been good off the bench for GB in the TN last year, but this year he's playing in a poor team, put any other play in his position at Wigan and they wouldn't look so great either.

Wellens is solid and until GB finds a fullback with real attacking ability he's the best they've got. I agree though McGuire at fullback is worth a try, especially in this game when there's less to lose.

Langley deserves a shot. He's no worse then a lot of other forwards Noble has tried in the past two years such as Bailey, Fozzard and Thackray. They've all had their chance and blown it. Give Langley a go.

Long ha sbeen inconsistent for GB but again who should be there ahead of him? Burrow could get a shot but he's probably better as an impact player from the bench replacing Cunningham at hooker for a spell or two. Again until they find a better option Long will be number 7.

Sculthorpe seems to have lost it a bit but he's been their best player on so many occasions he has to be there.

Senior's selection is a little strange. I thought his time was up. He'll probably do a decent job but if Yeaman was fit he'd be in for sure.

Raynor and Gardner are both in form and without Carney one deserves a shot at a wing spot. Someone's going to have to play there later in the year and it's one position very much up for grabs. I don't know if Karl Pryce is fit or not but I'd like to see him given a chance on the wing. He could be a huge weapon if he steps up.

Graham is a good selection on form. Looks the goods.

Newton is an odd one with Cunningham fit. I hope they don't try to use them both because it won't work, but he has played well for GB in the past.

Gilmour and Ellis have both been there before and done very little, although Gilmour has done a few good things. They've got utility value, Gilmour especially, but only fringe players for mine. Ellis seems to be an auotmatic though for some.

Other than K Pryce I thought Eorl Crabtree and Paul Wood's form might have deserved selection while Paul Cooke and Paul King (are they fit?) seem to be missed again. As for Salford, they may have started the year well but who could honestly be picked from the Reds? Hull and Wire have been better than salford in recent months but they've only had two picked between them.

To conclude I'm not sure if a better team could have been picked.

 

[nadera78]

When I was a kid, the wingers had time and space and therefore scored fancy tries and got the fame. The Full Backs were safe, solid defenders who could do the basics properly.

The game has changed. There is no longer the space there once was because of defensive improvements. The only player on an RL pitch who, on perhaps a dozen occasions in a game, will collect the ball with a bit of time and the opportunity to run at a broken defensive line is the Full Back. Therefore he needs to be quick and elusive to take advantage of that. Paul Wellens is an admirable defender but he offers nothing in attack at this level.As has been demonstrated time and time again.

Play Leon Pryce at Full Back and he would cause a lot of problems.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Pryce at fullback. Fair call. He did play one game there, can't remember which one. But he's a major contender for the standoff spot so who will play at six if he's one, McGuire? Not sure McGuire and Long is a good halves combo. Too similar and neither can kick well enough.

 

[JasonE]

I'm disappointed both Paul Cooke and Richard Horne missed out and Yeaman was unlucky to be injured. Lynch can consider himself hard done by as he has been consistently better than Fielden all year.

 

[LordLeague]

Mickey Higham was one of the few players to offer anything in attack for GB in last years TN and looked dangerous everytime he touched the ball. Is he injured at the moment or just out of favour ?

LordLeague

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Yeah Lynch is another who could easily be in the side. Higham was good last year but the move to Wigan has proven a bad one and I'm not sure he's played all that many games. Burrow will probably take his place as the little man coming off the bench to play dummy half.

 

[ozbash]

hope rob burrows gets the 7.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Regardless of GB selection quibbles, it's a pretty dodgy NZ team and I'm not at all confident, never am when we play over there.

 

[SFW]

It isn't a bad squad but you can make a decent case for a few more new players to be included and injury has held back three players from getting a game (Mathers, Yeaman and Hock, the latter is fit but short of match practice). Lynch, Cooke, Horne and Hodgson are the 4 I would say are unlucky not to get selection.

Wellens
Gardner
Gleeson
Senior
Raynor/Pryce
McGuire
Long
Fielden
Cunningham/Newton
Morley
Peacock
Ellis/Gilmour
Sculthorpe

Burrow
Ellis/Gilmour
Graham
Langley

I think GB will get up by 8.