Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Fri Sep 30, 2022 9:41 pm  

Seth wrote:

The squad is just painfully average. I cant get excited about the world cup at all.

Totally this. Hope we're wrong but there's no surprises in there for the NRL teams. Newman could have been our magic but injury killed that although I'm not 100% sure he'd be in the team. Appears we're trying to beat the Aussies at their own game which we've proved in the past is almost impossible. Hope wrong but not an inspiring squad.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:36 am  

Most exciting World Cup in a long time.

Forget England. Enjoy the other nations. Strong Samoa side, can't wait to see how far they can go

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:52 am  

Bang wrote:

Most exciting World Cup in a long time.

Forget England. Enjoy the other nations. Strong Samoa side, can't wait to see how far they can go

This is true. For once it's not a three horse race, or a two horse race. Some of the island nations are actually getting their best players and the playing field is levelled. England will probably be awful, the squad looks weak across the squad. No one in there is the best player in the competition in that position.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:56 am  

Bang wrote:

Most exciting World Cup in a long time.

Forget England. Enjoy the other nations. Strong Samoa side, can't wait to see how far they can go

Fiji look decent too. Korisau is a big addition for them. They look strong across the board, but maybe lacking in the halves.

Even Lebanon have better halves than England. Looks like it’ll be Douehi and Mitch Moses.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:15 am  

Yeh, I'm looking forward to some of the games.
But I do expect England to totally underwhelm.
Wane is a bit of a joke.
Short of centres, how is Hardaker not in. I guess we all know why. And what about Wardle?
All those back rowers, but no Bentley or Mcqueen?
Cooper and Hill are finished. Why not try English or Dupree as back up? And what's up with Sutton?
Sneyd in the halves? He will get totally exposed in defence. I'd have rather seen Harry Smith or Will Pryce in the squad.
And McIlorum is a totally penalty machine. I really dislike the way he plays. But Wane loves him. What's up with Hodgson?

We've got some big misses tbh - Walmsley, Lomax, Percival, Newman, Johnstone.
But it's a pretty uninspiring squad.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:57 am  

Absolutely. England are way down the pecking order these days.

Great to see the island nations look so strong.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:09 am  

Hodgsons injured but even with that I still wouldn’t have picked mcilorum.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:23 am  

I'm not sure about this theory. A bit like with the SL salery cap is the overall competition going to be a better quality or have some of the nations like England and New Zealand just regressed and the quality diluted.

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:59 pm  

Simmo71 wrote:

Yeh, I'm looking forward to some of the games.
But I do expect England to totally underwhelm.
Wane is a bit of a joke.
Short of centres, how is Hardaker not in. I guess we all know why. And what about Wardle?
All those back rowers, but no Bentley or Mcqueen?
Cooper and Hill are finished. Why not try English or Dupree as back up? And what's up with Sutton?
Sneyd in the halves? He will get totally exposed in defence. I'd have rather seen Harry Smith or Will Pryce in the squad.
And McIlorum is a totally penalty machine. I really dislike the way he plays. But Wane loves him. What's up with Hodgson?

We've got some big misses tbh - Walmsley, Lomax, Percival, Newman, Johnstone.
But it's a pretty uninspiring squad.

Can’t wait for the World Cup but I think it’ll be England’s worst performance in terms of results in the professional era, I expect it will bring an end to Wane’s time as England head coach, something he’s spent years working on “full time”.

Really looking forward to seeing Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and PNG. .

Re: 2022 | RL World Cup : Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:20 pm  

Simmo71 wrote:

Yeh, I'm looking forward to some of the games.
But I do expect England to totally underwhelm.
Wane is a bit of a joke.
Short of centres, how is Hardaker not in. I guess we all know why. And what about Wardle?
All those back rowers, but no Bentley or Mcqueen?
Cooper and Hill are finished. Why not try English or Dupree as back up? And what's up with Sutton?
Sneyd in the halves? He will get totally exposed in defence. I'd have rather seen Harry Smith or Will Pryce in the squad.
And McIlorum is a totally penalty machine. I really dislike the way he plays. But Wane loves him. What's up with Hodgson?

We've got some big misses tbh - Walmsley, Lomax, Percival, Newman, Johnstone.
But it's a pretty uninspiring squad.

Unbelievable that in the same post you called McIlorum a penalty machine and advocated for Bentley to be selected.