2017 RLWC: England Squad
ONLY 2 YEARS AGO!?!?!?
In rolling through RLWC squads that interest me, I've dropped a best 17 and explored the various options available to the respective coaches. With England things are a bit different as I only really not the familiar names and in general, I don't really care how England could line up or what coach Wayne Bennett is thinking in terms of his squad selections and best 17 selection. What intrigues me about England is the bigger picture and that starts with the fact that they do have Bennett as coach, which hasn't exactly been smooth sailing.
Despite being a legendary coach, Bennett has been questioned more than he has been praised during his time as England coach. The biggest issue is the most obvious with Bennett spending far more time concerned with his Brisbane Broncos post, than his second job as England coach and during the NRL season there is only so much resource Bennett can put into his England job. This is made a fair bit easier with England enjoying a strong presence in the NRL and the NRL-based contingent consists of; Sam Burgess, Thomas Burgess, James Graham, Chris Heighington, Josh Hodgson, Elliott Whitehead and Gareth Widdop.
Bennett was appointed coach to take England through to the World Cup, thus making the next month or so the climax of Bennett's time as England coach. With Bennett as coach, possibly half of their starting line up coming from the NRL and other positions being filled by veteran players like Sean O'Loughlin (18 Tests), Ryan Hall (32), Kallum Watkins (20), James Roby (26) and Chris Hill (19), this is as good an opportunity for England to make waves as ever.
With that comes some level of expectation and there hasn't been too much noise about England so far in the build up to the World Cup. All eyes will be on Australia and now with the shenanigans of the past week, combined with the location of this World Cup, there will be a truck-load of attention on Tonga and then obviously Aotearoa and Samoa as well. Compared to the last World Cup which was in England, the Poms aren't drumming up hype and won't have the local pressure to deal with. They have also been quietly going about their business with training camps and little get-togethers, which are put in the 'out of sight, out of mind' category for many folk in this part of the world.
Bennett has been questioned for not keeping as close an eye on the Super League as he could, he does however have a coaching staff that would have given him comprehensive coverage. Bennett has also overseen the regular camps/get-togethers, although the real benefit of having Bennett as the coach will come in the weeks leading up to the World Cup. Bennett's strength is bringing together a bunch of blokes in a short time and extracting the best out of them as a team, so as long as he has the players he wants, he can get busy in camp.
Those with a better knowledge of SL footy will offer greater insight into the fullback battle as Sam Tomkins wasn't selected and Zak Hardaker got caught up in some shenanigans. Other points of interest will be Widdop's halves partner which is a battle between Luke Gale and George Williams, along with the hooking combination of Josh Hodgson and James Roby. Hodgson frequently shifted to lock for Canberra Raiders with Kurt Baptise coming on and there's no need to take Hodgson off when Roby gets his minutes either for England.
Especially not when Hodgson could be joined by the Burgess bros, Graham, O'Loughlin and Heighington in the middle of the field. That's enough size, or more notably, defensive grunt, to cover having Hodgson and Roby on the field together and their speed around the ruck will offer them oomph through the middle. Australia have looked amazing in recent times by plowing through the middle with speed and I expect Aotearoa to adopt a similar style, England also have the tools to do this and that could be their strongest asset.
Again, I don't know what England's best 17 will look like. Nor do I think it really matters given the fact that Bennett is the coach and that England will hunker down, in siege-mentality style. What does matter is how England want to play and whether they can execute their jobs because their experience and low key status is going to be a huge advantage. England will love the situation they find themselves in and they'll quietly build a heft team culture from which they can add some spice on top of.
Peace and love 27.
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