England name the squad that will travel to Australia.

The England squad, announced by Tony Smith today is as follows, according to the BBC;

Keith Senior, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, Jamie Peacock (captain), Gareth Ellis, Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Lee Smith (all Leeds), Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Leon Pryce, James Graham, James Roby, Maurie Fa'asavalu, Jon Wilkin (all St Helens), Rob Purdham (Harlequins), Mark Calderwood, Mickey Higham, Gareth Hock (all Wigan), Martin Gleeson, Adrian Morley, Ben Westwood (all Warrington), Jamie Langley, Paul Sykes (both Bradford).

A total of fifteen players played in Saturday's Grand Final while the remaining nine are combined from Harlequins, Wigan, Bradford and Warrington. This, in my opinion, shows the class between the top two teams and how they are developing home-grown players.

From a Warrington point of view, its pleasing to see Ben Westwood being named on the flight down under. He has, without a shadow of a doubt been our stand out player. He has done the little things right, as well as consistently working hard every time he set foot on the field. Adrian Morley has often dragged the team forward on occasions when we were in real trouble.

Tony Smith said to the England RL website that he has gone for versatility, agility and pace.

“When you’ve only got 24 players, there needs to be a certain amount of versatility and I think we’ve got that,” he said.

“If you take five front-rowers, that’s over a fifth of your squad so that would be a gamble too.

“There are some players who play in the back row that I wouldn’t hesitate in pushing forward to the front row. There’s a gamble whichever way you go.”

And looking at it that way, I agree. An Australian summer would benifit back rowers as the grounds are much harder, therefore if we have the speed to counter a five man Australian front rower we're putting them on the back foot every time.

Looking at the squad, Rob Purdham, Jamie Langley and Paul Sykes would be looking at being in reserve and lucky to get a game. Lee Smith is the only recognised left winger, with Peter Fox and surprise exclusion. Stuart Fielden fails to make the international side for the second concsecutive year while Lee Gilmour also misses out. The exclusion of Gilmour is one that did surprise me, while Joe Westerman is reported to have a foot injury.

However I do have critisism for one player in particular. Mark Claderwood has not done enough to warrent a place. I personally would have given his position back to Peter Fox. I'm not going to repeat myself so read the earlier post here as to what I think of the Hull bound player.

So to finalise, here is what I belive to be the strongest starting seventeen that should line up against Papa New Guinea on 25th October in Townsville.

1. Paul Wellens

2. Ade Gardner

3. Martin Gleeson

4. Keith Senior

5. Lee Smith

6. Leon Pryce

7. Rob Burrow

8. Jamie Peacock

9. James Roby

10. Adrian Morley

11. Gareth Ellis

12. Jon Wilkin

13. Kevin Sinfield

14. Mickey Higham

15. James Graham

16. Jamie Jones-Buchanan

17. Gareth Hock